National Longitudinal Surveys

National Longitudinal Surveys
Name	National Longitudinal Surveys
Producer	Bureau of Labor Statistics
Country	United States
Started	1966
Discipline	Sociology, Economics, Demography
Frequency	Biennial to annual

National Longitudinal Surveys are a set of long-running cohort studies administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to track labor market experiences and life course trajectories. The surveys follow distinct birth cohorts and occupational cohorts over decades, producing microdata used by researchers at institutions such as Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Outputs have informed policy debates involving the Social Security Act, Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, Affordable Care Act, Higher Education Act, and analyses by agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Labor.

Overview

The program comprises multiple panel datasets that collect repeated measures on employment, income, education, family formation, health, and training for respondents sampled in cohorts such as the 1960s and 1980s. Prominent users include scholars at the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, Urban Institute, RAND Corporation, and Pew Research Center. The surveys are frequently cited alongside other longitudinal resources like the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the General Social Survey, and the National Survey of Family Growth in comparative labor market and intergenerational mobility research.

History and development

Initiated in 1966 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor and designed with consultation from experts at Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Cornell University, the program was motivated by labor shortages during the Vietnam War and by interest in vocational training outcomes linked to legislation such as the Manpower Development and Training Act. Subsequent expansions and methodological reforms were influenced by panels convened at National Institutes of Health, meetings at the Social Science Research Council, and recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Survey design and methodology

Field operations rely on sampling frames maintained in cooperation with the U.S. Census Bureau and administrative linkages to programs like Supplemental Security Income records and Medicare enrollment where permissible. Instruments include structured interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and biometric modules adapted after consultations with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Yale University. Longitudinal weighting, imputation techniques popularized by analysts at University of California, Berkeley and attrition adjustments informed by work at Michigan State University are standard practice. Data linkage procedures adhere to privacy guidance from the Office of Management and Budget and oversight by institutional review boards at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cohorts and datasets

Major cohorts include the original 1966 Young Men survey, the Young Women cohort, the 1979 Youth cohort, the 1997 Youth cohort, and supplemental occupational samples modeled after panels like the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Each cohort has spawned topical modules on education, training, family, incarceration, and health, attracting investigators from Columbia University Teachers College, Duke University, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin–Madison. Comparative work often pairs these cohorts with international panels like the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel.

Key findings and impacts

Analyses using the surveys have shaped understanding of wage inequality trends examined by scholars at Yale Law School and Columbia Business School, the returns to education studied at Teachers College, Columbia University and University College London, and the effects of incarceration on employment explored by researchers at Vanderbilt University and University of California, Los Angeles. Findings have influenced policymaking around welfare reform during the era of President Bill Clinton and have been cited in evaluations of programs tied to the Workforce Investment Act and the GI Bill. The datasets underpin high-profile studies by Nobel laureates at Harvard University and economists affiliated with the International Monetary Fund.

Data access and usage

Microdata are distributed under restricted-use and public-use licenses through mechanisms coordinated with the National Science Foundation and data enclaves managed by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Prominent training workshops for using the data have been hosted at Princeton University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Major journals that regularly publish results include the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Demography, Social Forces, and American Sociological Review.

Criticisms and limitations

Critiques have focused on sample attrition discussed at conferences at Stanford University, measurement error debated in forums at Harvard Kennedy School, and representativeness questioned relative to surveys by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. Methodological limitations such as recall bias, changing questionnaire items across waves, and linkage constraints with administrative data have been highlighted by analysts at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Debates over policy inferences drawn from the data have occurred in venues like the American Association for Public Opinion Research and testimony before congressional committees including the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Category:Longitudinal studies