Remembrances of Things Past: Test-Retest Reliability of Retrospective Migration Histories

James Smith and Duncan Thomas

Labor and Demography from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Matched retrospective life history data collected from the same individuals in two waves of the Malaysian Family Life Survey provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the quality of long-term recall data in a rapidly changing developing country. Recall quality, measured by consistency of incidence and dating of moves reported twelve years apart, is higher among the better educated. Respondents better remember more salient moves, those linked with other important life events such as marriage, childbirth, or a job change and moves that lasted a long time. Migrations that dim in memory as time passes are typically shorter duration or local moves, often made while the respondent was young. Dating of moves is also significantly improved when linked with other salient events. Our findings suggest concrete and practical steps that can be followed to improve the quality of retrospective life histories collected in field surveys.

JEL-codes: J (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2004-03-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-his
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 37
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Remembrances of things past: test–retest reliability of retrospective migration histories (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0403026

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