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How Reliable Are Administrative Reports of Paid Work Hours?

Author

Listed:
  • Marta Lachowska

    (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

  • Alexandre Mas

    (Princeton University)

  • Stephen A. Woodbury

    (Michigan State University)

Abstract

This paper examines the quality of quarterly records on work hours collected from employers in the State of Washington to administer the unemployment insurance (UI) system. We subject the administrative records to four "trials," all of which suggest the records reliably measure paid hours of work. First, the distribution of hours in the administrative records exhibits far less "heaping" than does the distribution in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Second, quarter-to-quarter changes in the log of earnings are highly correlated with quarter-to-quarter changes in the log of paid hours. Third, annual changes in Washington's minimum wage rate (which is indexed) are clearly reflected in year-to-year changes in the distribution of work hours in the administrative data. Fourth, Mincer-style earnings and wage rate regressions using the administrative data produce estimates similar to those found elsewhere in the literature. We speculate that the administrative hours records in Washington are of high quality because they are collected for the purpose of administering unemployment insurance (UI), particularly to determine UI eligibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Lachowska & Alexandre Mas & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2018. "How Reliable Are Administrative Reports of Paid Work Hours?," Working Papers 2018-11, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:econom:2018-11
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Daniele Checchi & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa & Lara Vivian, 2022. "Hours Inequality," Working Papers hal-03872764, HAL.
    3. Palladino, Marco G. & Bertheau, Antoine & Hijzen, Alexander & Kunze, Astrid & Barreto, Cesar & Gülümser, Dogan & Lachowska, Marta & Lassen, Anne Sophie & Lattanzio, Salvatore & Lochner, Benjamin & Lom, 2025. "Firms and the Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Eleven Countries," Working Papers 181, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Gregory Verdugo & Malak Kandoussi, 2025. "Will You Follow Your Job to the Suburbs? Commuting, Locational Amenities and Wages in a Large Metro Area," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-05391709, HAL.
    5. Jäger, Simon & Heining, Jörg, 2019. "How Substitutable Are Workers? Evidence from Worker Deaths," MPRA Paper 109757, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Jan 2019.
    6. Marta Lachowska & Alexandre Mas & Raffaele Saggio & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2023. "Work Hours Mismatch," NBER Working Papers 31205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

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