Ms Nicole Watson

HILDA Deputy Director, Survey Methodology

Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

---

Biography

Nicole joined the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Project team in October 2000. Until early 2010, she managed the fieldwork contract with Nielsen (waves 1-8) and Roy Morgan Research (wave 9) and the data team at the Melbourne Institute responsible for the data management, editing, imputation, weighting, and documentation for the HILDA data. From early 2010, Nicole has focused on the survey methodology issues for HILDA (weighting, imputation and the top-up sample undertaken in 2011) together with an ARC project on Assessing and Improving the Quality of Longitudinal Surveys. Nicole produced the weights for most releases of the data to date, together with the imputation in some.
Prior to joining the Melbourne Institute, Nicole worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Victorian Department of Human Services, and a private statistical consulting company.

Research Interests / Current Projects

Non-response in longitudinal surveys; imputation; weighting

Nicole Watson's SSRN Author Page

Recent Publications / Papers

Book Chapters

Watson, N., Wooden, M. (2009), Identifying Factors Affecting Longitudinal Survey Response, in P. Lynn (ed.), Methodology of Longitudinal Surveys, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, pp. 157-181.

Journal Articles

Watson, N., and Wilkins, R. (forthcoming), ‘Design Matters: The Impact of CAPI on Interview Length’, Field Methods.

Kiely, K., Butterworth, P., Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2014),’ The Symbol Digit Modalities Test: Normative Data from a Large Nationally Representative Sample of Australians’, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 767-775.

Watson, N. (2014), ‘Evaluation of Weighting Methods to Integrate a Top-Up Sample with an Ongoing Longitudinal Sample’, Survey Research Methods, vol. 8, no.3, pp. 195-208.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2014), ‘Re-Engaging with Survey Non-Respondents: Evidence from Three Household Panels’, Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series A, vol. 177, no. 2, pp. 499-522.

Schonlau, M., Kroh, M., and Watson, N. (2013), ‘The Implementation of Cross-Sectional Weights in Household Panel Surveys’, Statistics Surveys, vol. 7, pp. 37-57.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2013), ‘Adding a Top-Up Sample to the HILDA Survey’, Australian Economic Review, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 489-98.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2012), ‘The HILDA Survey: A Case Study in the Design and Development of a Successful Household Panel Study”, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies: International Journal, vol. 3, no. 3, pp 369-381.

Watson, N. and Starick, R. (2011), 'Evaluation of Alternative Income Imputation Methods for a Longitudinal Survey', Journal of Official Statistics, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 693-715.

Schonlau, M., Watson, N. and Kroh, M. (2011), 'Household Survey Panel: How Much do Following Rules Affect Sample Size', Survey Research Methods, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 53-61.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2010), The HILDA Survey: Progress and Future Developments, The Australian Economic Review 43, pp. 326-336.

Watson, N. (2007), Using Imputed Data: Examples from the HILDA Survey, The Australian Economic Review, vol. 40, pp. 453-461.

Wooden, M., and Watson, N. (2007), The HILDA Survey and its Contribution to Economic and Social Research (So Far), The Economic Record, vol. 83, pp. 208-231.

Conference, Technical and Discussion Papers

Cernat, A., Lugtig, P., Uhrig, S.C.N., and Watson, N. (2014), ‘Assessing and relaxing assumptions in quasi-simplex models’, ISER Working Paper Series 2014-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex.

Uhrig, S.C.N., and Watson, N. (2014), ‘The impact of measurement error on wage decompositions: Evidence from the BHPS and HILDA Survey’, HILDA Discussion Paper Series 2/14, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N., and Summerfield, M. (2014), ‘Outcomes from matching the HILDA Survey to the Death Register’, HILDA Technical Paper Series 2/14, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Pudney, S., and Watson, N. (2013), 'If at first you don't succeed? Fieldwork effort, panel attrition, and health-employment inferences in BHPS and HILDA', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 2/13, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Pudney, S., and Watson, N. (2012), 'A tale of two surveys: Panel attrition, health and employment in BHPS and HILDA', paper presented at the 3rd Panel Survey Methods Workshop, University of Melbourne, 4-5 July 2012.

Watson, N. (2012), 'Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Weighting Methodology for the HILDA Survey', HILDA Technical Paper Series 2/12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N., and Wilkins, R. (2012), 'The impact of computer-assisted interviewing on interview length', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 1/12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N. (2011), 'Methodology for the HILDA top-up sample', HILDA Technical Paper Series 1/11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, 2011.

Watson, N., and Wilkins, R. (2011), 'Experimental change from paper-based interviewing to computer-assisted interviewing in the HILDA Survey', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 2/11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2011), 'Re-engaging with survey non-respondents: The BHPS, SOEP and HILDA Survey experience', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 1/11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Schonlau, M., Watson, N., and Kroh, M., (2010), 'Household Survey Panels: How much do following rules affect Sample Size?', SOEP Papers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 347, DIW Berlin.

Watson, N. (2010), 'The Impact of the Transition to CAPI and a New Fieldwork Provider on the HILDA Survey', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 2/10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N. (2010), 'The Causes and Effects of Non-Monotonic Attrition', paper presented at the 2nd Panel Survey Methods Workshop, University of Mannheim, 5-6 July 2010.

Hayes, C., and Watson, N. (2009), 'HILDA Imputation Methods', HILDA Technical Paper Series 2/09, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N. (2009), 'Challenges and Insights from Overlapping Seams in the HILDA Survey', paper presented at the 25th International Methodology Symposium, Longitudinal Surveys, Ottawa, Canada, 28-30 October 2009.

Watson, N., and Wooden, M. (2009), 'Mixed and Multiple Collection Modes: The HILDA Survey Experience', paper presented at the 25th International Methodology Symposium, Longitudinal Surveys, Ottawa, Canada, 28-30 October 2009.

Watson, N. (2009), 'Disentangling overlapping seams: The experience of the HILDA Survey', HILDA Conference Proceedings 2009, Melbourne, 16-17 July, 2009.

Watson, N., and Summerfield, M., (2009), 'Quality of the Occupation and Industry Coding in the HILDA Survey', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 3/09, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Watson, N. (2008), 'What is the value of an overlapping seam?', paper presented at the 1st Panel Survey Methods Workshop, University of Essex, 14-15 July 2008.

Wooden, M., Watson, N., Agius, P. and Freidin, S. (2008), 'Assessing the Quality of the Height and Weight Data in the HILDA Survey', HILDA Technical Paper Series 1/08, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Starick, R. and Watson, N. (2007), 'Evaluation of Alternative Income Imputation Methods for the HILDA Survey', HILDA Discussion Paper Series 1/07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.