Report

Partners and babies: partnership and fertility histories of the German Family Panel (pairfam/DemoDiff, waves 1-3) as an event history data set

Schnor, C., Bastin, S.
Pairfam technical paper 3
42 pages.
München, pairfam (2014)

Abstract

The German Family Panel (pairfam and DemoDiff, waves 1-3, Release 3.1) provides two generated biographical data sets (biochild.dta and biopart.dta) that contain information on fertility and partnership histories. Before these data can be used for event history or sequence analyses, they must be transferred into a spell format. In this report, we explain how this transfer is made. We provide a STATA code (Eventhistory.do) that generates an event history data set that can be used for various kinds of event history and sequence analyses in the realm of fertility and partnership dynamics. With the generated Eventhistory.dta, it is easy to identify the timing of family-related events, like the formation, dissolution, and interruption of marriages and other types of partnerships; as well as the birth of children. In addition, further episode-specific information on the family arrangement is included. Transferring the data into a spell format involves two major tasks: bringing the partnership and fertility histories into convergent and compatible formats, and dealing with missing date information. Moreover, Eventhistory.dta includes indicator variables for imputed date information in biopart.dta and biochild.dta, as well as for individuals who did not experience any events in their partnership or fertility biographies. This technical report is accompanied by the STATA codes that generate the spell data, as well as two examples of analyses. In addition, an Excel file exemplifies the structure of the data set.

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.