News

22 July 2010

Celebrating a Decade of HILDA – Announcing the 2011 HILDA Survey Research Conference

The next HILDA Survey Research Conference will be held at the University of Melbourne on 14th and 15th July, 2011. This roughly coincides with the 10th birthday of the survey; based on the date the contract with the Commonwealth was signed, HILDA will actually turn 10 on the 7th September this year. We will thus be using this conference to reflect on the first decade of HILDA.

I am also pleased to announce that our two keynote speakers will most likely be:

• Heather Laurie, the current Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, and one of the architects of “Understanding Society”, the successor to the British Household Panel Survey.
• Richard Blundell, the Ricardo Professor of Political Economy at University College London, and Research Director for the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

An official call for papers will be made later in the year, but as in past years we hope to cover all travel and accommodation costs for paper presenters from within Australia, as well as offer substantial travel subsidies for a select number of overseas-based presenters.

So get these dates into your diaries, and start planning your trip to Melbourne in 2011.

16 June 2010

HILDA Statistical Report Volume 5 now available

The fifth Statistical Report was released today.

Authored by Roger Wilkins, Diana Warren, Markus Hahn and Brendan Houng, Volume 5 is based on the first seven waves of data collected by the HILDA Survey. The report comprises two parts, the first of which contains short articles that provide an annual update of changes in key aspects of life in Australia, covering the four main areas of HILDA, namely:

• Households and family life;
• Incomes and economic wellbeing;
• Labour market outcomes; and
• Life satisfaction, health and wellbeing.

The second part of the report contains 11 feature articles on irregular topics, including articles by guest authors Dean Lillard of Cornell University, Alison Goode (now at Flinders University) and Mark Wooden.

You can download a free copy of the Report at http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/statreport.html (176 pages, 1815 KB, PDF).

Enquiries about the HILDA Statistical Report:
Dr Roger Wilkins
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
Tel: 03 8344 2092
email: [email protected]

Media Enquiries:
Mr Cliff Howard Communications and Publicity Manager
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
The University of Melbourne
Tel: 03 8344 2154
email: [email protected]

11 May 2010

2010 HILDA User Training reminder

Just a friendly reminder about the HILDA User Training in Sydney and Canberra in June...

Sydney, Tuesday 8th June
Time: 9am to 5pm
Location: School of Economics, University of New South Wales (Australian School of Business Building, ASB216, map reference E12)

Canberra, Wednesday 9th June
Time: 9am to 5pm
Location: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Tuggeranong Office Park, Soward Way (cnr Athllon Drive), Greenway, Canberra (Auditorium)

Cost for the one-day training session is $45 (including GST). Morning and afternoon tea will be provided.

Spaces are limited to 50 in Sydney and 70 in Canberra, so please register early. For more information, any updates and to register, please visit the HILDA User Training website.

30 April 2010

Postdoctoral Fellow position on ARC Linkage grant

A position for a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University exists on an ARC Linkage Grant which uses HILDA to investigate time scarcity as a health inequality. Please see the ANU Postdoctoral Fellow position description and selection criteria (PDF 27 KB) for more information. Please note: this role will also be advertised as a Researcher Officer position. Applications for this job close on 17 May 2010.

8 April 2010

2009 HILDA Annual Report now available

The 2009 HILDA Annual Report is now available.

2010 HILDA Data User Training

Sydney, Tuesday 8th June
Time: 9am to 5pm
Location: School of Economics, University of New South Wales (seminar room to be advised)

Canberra, Wednesday 9th June
Time: 9am to 5pm
Location: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Tuggeranong Office Park, Soward Way (cnr Athllon Drive), Greenway, Canberra (Auditorium)

Cost for the one-day training session is $45 (including GST). Morning and afternoon tea will be provided.

For more information, regular updates and to register, please visit the HILDA Data User Training website.

New Discussion and Technical Papers

A discussion paper and two technical papers have recently been released.

No. 1/10 - April 2010
Authors: Roger Wilkins and Claire Sun
Assessing the Quality of the Expenditure Data Collected in the Self-Completion Questionnaire

No. 1/10 - January 2010
Author: Claire Sun
HILDA Expenditure Imputation

No. 2/09 - December 2009
Authors: Clinton Hayes and Nicole Watson
HILDA Imputation Methods

11 March 2010

Wave 9 Response Rates

We are pleased to report that preliminary data indicate that our headline response rate for wave 9 (the percentage of respondents from wave 8 that were successfully interviewed in wave 9) is 96.1%. This is the highest annual response rate in the history of the HILDA Survey to date.

Online Data Dictionary

The Online Data Dictionary is now back online. We are still working on improving the efficiency of this application. If you have any comments or suggestions please email: [email protected].

Correction to the Derived Variable Coding Frameworks

The Derived Variable Coding Frameworks supplied on the DVD inappropriately excluded the derived History: variables. A zip of replacement General Release frameworks for each of the 8 waves is available for download here.

Possible Changes to Future Content

Due to some concerns about the quality of the responses for the question relating to ‘how your pay is currently set’ (C 23 - Wave 9 Continuing Person Questionnaire) we are considering omitting this for wave 10 and beyond. We are also considering the removal of all questions relating to household expenditure on the SCQ (C9 - Wave 9 Self Completion Questionnaire). This mainly reflects concerns about the potential impact these questions might be having on the SCQ response rate. If you have any particular concerns about these proposals, please email your comments to [email protected].

1 February 2010

Release 8 forms now available

Release 8 of the HILDA data (which includes waves 1 to 8) is now available. If you haven't already ordered data and would like to, please visit our Ordering the Data page: http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/data.html.

If you are a Data Manager and wish to obtain the Release 8 Organisational Licence forms, please contact FaHCSIA at [email protected].