Integrating GB and US Census Microdata for studying the impact of family migration on partnered women's labour market status

Large microdata sample files from national censuses are increasingly being used in social science research, yet little work has been done to integrate such data-sets despite the literature that draws attention to this potential. We argue that, while such research is to be encouraged, there are problems in integrating different data-sets that must be given due attention. The example considered here is a cross-national analysis of the effects of family migration on labour market participation rates for female partners using data from the 1991 British Census Sample of Anonymised Records and the 1990 United States public Use Microdata Sample. However, the lessons from this exercise are argued to be of more general interest. The problems we address are divided into those of: data collection, manipulation and reliability; question type and definition; and the measurement of individual and family variables. We also present some brief empirical findings from our two samples. The paper demonstrates that care must be taken when comparing microdata across nations, and that in some ways the GB and US data are surprisingly incompatible. even so, the benefits of cross-national comparisons make endeavours such as this well worthwhile, enabling comparative benchmarks to be established from which the influence of national ideological and institutional structures can be evaluated.