MATCHING AND INTEGRATION OF REGISTRY AND SURVEY DATA ON THE DYNAMICS OF WORK HISTORIES: A PILOT STUDY

Abstract

In the last decade the practice of combining longitudinal surveys with administrative data has been affirmed, enabling the integration of the complementary advantages offered by these two data sources. In this perspective, the paper describes a pilot study conducted in 2015 involving deterministic matching and integration between a retrospective panel survey carried out on a representative sample of households living in the province of Trento (Italy) and the register data from the provincial section of the administrative archive of INPS (the Italian social security agency). The aim was to create a comprehensive database for the study of work histories. Through the survey we address the main limitation of INPS data, which do not cover the universe of workers and jobseekers. Conversely, the administrative data, providing richer and more reliable information on most work episodes and instances of subsidized unemployment, help mitigate one of the most significant sources of errors in the panel surveys, i.e. the distortions caused by memory bias.