PDII Survey• Conducted by Westat in English and Spanish• Start with CPS • Autor & Handel, Blinder, Kleiner, Krueger, Blau &

Kahn, Hall, Freeland helped design new questions on job skills, offshoring, occupational licensing, experience, job search, etc.

• Focus group tests• Codebook, questionnaire, and documentation

available on Krueger’s web page under PDII. Data will be posted there soon.

More on PDII Survey• Universe: Individuals age 18 or older in the

labor force• 2,513 eligible individuals were interviewed

June 5-July 20, 2008• Asked about last job for those not currently

employed • Random digit dial sampling design• One respondent randomly selected from

eligible household to complete the survey• Up to 15 callbacks made to try to elicit

responses.

More on PDII Survey• 28% of sampled eligible households agreed to

participate in the screening questions, and 64% of the selected individuals in screened households completed the questionnaire.

• Response rate was 17.9%, using AAPOR definition 3• Sample weights: primarily match the marginal

distributions of the Current Population Survey by sex, age, education, census region, urbanization, race, Hispanic ethnicity, employment status, and class of employer

• Note issue with hourly wage data – didn’t build in checks for overtime, tips and commissions that are in CPS

Split Ballot Experiment: Occupation

Q6A. What kind of work do you do, that is, what is your occupation? (IF NECESSARY: For example, Plumber, Typist, or Farmer)

____________________________________________________________

Q6B. What kind of work do you do, that is, what is your occupation?(IF NECESSARY: For example, Electrician, Sales Person, or Mechanic)

____________________________________________________________

** Randomly assigned respondents to Version A and Version B.

Results

Version A Version B

Plumber, Typist, 1.2% 0.9%or Farmer

Electrician, Sales Person, 6.3% 6.3%or Mechanic

Differences between A and B are not statistically significant at 0.10 level. N equals 1,305 for version A and 1,191 for version B.

Results

Version A Version B

Plumber, Typist, 3.6% 2.9%Farmer or Secretary

Electrician, Sales Person, 6.3% 6.3%or Mechanic

Differences between A and B are not statistically significant at 0.10 level. N equals 1,305 for version A and 1,191 for version B.

Make Things, Repair Things or Provide Services

Q8. Would you say that on your own job you mainly provide services, repair things, or make things?

DK 2.0%REFUSED 0.5PROVIDE SERVICES 78.6 REPAIR THINGS 8.3 MAKE THINGS 10.6

N = 2,274

Make, Repair or Serve by Industry

Q8. Would you say that on your own job you mainly provide services, repair things, or make things?

Ag, Mfg, Everything Mining, Constr Else

PROVIDE SERVICES 52.3% 88.0%REPAIR THINGS 20.3 5.4MAKE THINGS 27.4 6.7

Another Novel Question

• GED Status asked of all people with at least high school:

Q39a. Do you have a GED or a regular high school degree?

GED ……………….………………1

Regular high school degree……..2

GED

• 160 GED recipients (9.1% of HS and above)

• 17% of exactly HS have GED• 5% of those with >HS have GED

• In Wage Equation: GED recipients earn 9% less (t=1.98)

• In Wage Equation for >HS sample, GED recipients earn 28% less (t=4.01)