Occupational Wages around the World (OWW) Database
|
Richard B. Freeman Harvard University National Bureau of Economic Research London School of Economics |
Remco H. Oostendorp Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Tinbergen Institute
|
DATA
|
OWW3 database |
Stata |
csv |
ASCII |
|---|---|---|---|
|
oww3.zip (4.1 Mb) |
oww3.dta (19.4 Mb) |
oww3.csv (47.9 Mb) |
oww3.asc (47.9 Mb) |
You will need a major database, statistical program, or programming language to use these files. This dataset is too large to load completely into MS Excel 2000, which has a maximum of 65,536 observations, though Access can be used to read the ASCII datafile. Users without STATA may be interested in STAT/TRANSFER. This program can translate STATA files into other formats including other statistical packages, database packages and spreadsheets. Among statistical packages supports are SPSS, SAS, and Systat.
NBER internal users can access the data from a UNIX shell at /home/data/oww5308
Documentation
- Technical_document_OWW_1953-2008_release1.0.docx
- Exchange rate sources for OWW 1953-2008
- Working paper w26863
Variable List
The database contains the following variables (wage variables reported in bold are recommended for use - see the note below):
| OWW3 | Variable Label |
|---|---|
| y0 | year |
| y1 | country code (from ILO October Inquiry) |
| country_code | country code (iso3) |
| country_name | country name |
| y3 | industry code (from ILO October Inquiry) |
| isic88 | International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC-88) |
| y4 | occupation code (from ILO October Inquiry) |
| isco88 | International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-1988) |
| hw1wl_current | hourly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), LCU (reported) |
| hw2wl_current | hourly: country-specific calibration (lex), LCU (reported) |
| hw3wl_current | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), LCU (reported) |
| hw4wl_current | hourly: uniform calibration (lex), LCU (reported) |
| hw1wl_present | hourly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| hw2wl_present | hourly: country-specific calibration (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| hw3wl_present | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| hw4wl_present | hourly: uniform calibration (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| hw2wu_current | hourly: country-specific calibration (uni), LCU (reported) |
| hw3wu_current | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), LCU (reported) |
| hw4wu_current | hourly: uniform calibration (uni), LCU (reported) |
| hw2wu_present | hourly: country-specific calibration (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| hw3wu_present | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| hw4wu_present | hourly: uniform calibration (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| hw1wl_us | hourly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), US$ |
| hw2wl_us | hourly: country-specific calibration (lex), US$ |
| hw3wl_us | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), US$ |
| hw4wl_us | hourly: uniform calibration (lex), US$ |
| hw2wu_us | hourly: country-specific calibration (uni), US$ |
| hw3wu_us | hourly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), US$ |
| hw4wu_us | hourly: uniform calibration (uni), US$ |
| mw1wl_current | monthly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), LCU (reported) |
| mw2wl_current | monthly: country-specific calibration (lex), LCU (reported) |
| mw3wl_current | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), LCU (reported) |
| mw4wl_current | monthly: uniform calibration (lex), LCU (reported) |
| mw1wl_present | monthly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| mw2wl_present | monthly: country-specific calibration (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| mw3wl_present | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| mw4wl_present | monthly: uniform calibration (lex), LCU (present-day) |
| mw2wu_current | monthly: country-specific calibration (uni), LCU (reported) |
| mw3wu_current | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), LCU (reported) |
| mw4wu_current | monthly: uniform calibration (uni), LCU (reported) |
| mw2wu_present | monthly: country-specific calibration (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| mw3wu_present | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| mw4wu_present | monthly: uniform calibration (uni), LCU (present-day) |
| mw1wl_us | monthly: standard data (no calibration) (lex), US$ |
| mw2wl_us | monthly: country-specific calibration (lex), US$ |
| mw3wl_us | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (lex), US$ |
| mw4wl_us | monthly: uniform calibration (lex), US$ |
| mw2wu_us | monthly: country-specific calibration (uni), US$ |
| mw3wu_us | monthly: country-specific calibration with imputation (uni), US$ |
| mw4wu_us | monthly: uniform calibration (uni), US$ |
| exrt_usd | exchange rate: LCU (present-day) per US$ |
| curr_current | LCU as reported in ILO October Inquiry |
| curr_present | LCU used at present |
| conv_wage | conversion rate reported to present-day LCU |
| select | source of exchange rate |
| comment | additional info if nonstandard source of exchange rate |
| share_indigenousl | share of observations reported for indigenous workers only (lex) |
| share_europeanl | share of observations reported for European workers only (lex) |
| share_indigenousu | share of observations reported for indigenous workers only (uni) |
| share_europeanu | share of observations reported for European workers only (uni) |
| coveragel | share of observations reported for entire country (lex) |
| coverageu | share of observations reported for entire country (uni) |
| note_occind_matching | Note on imputation of occupation and industry |
Calibration Info
Wage data are reported with variable names PwTwW_C, where P indicates whether it is an hourly or monthly wage, T the calibration type, W the weighting type, and C the currency type:
| P∈{h,m} |
Period: h = hourly wage m = monthly wage |
| T∈{1,2,3,4} |
Type: 1 = standard data (no calibration) 2 = country-specific calibration 3 = country-specific calibration with imputation 4 = uniform calibration |
| W∈{l,u} |
Weighting: l = lexicographic weighting u = uniform weighting |
| C∈{current,present,us} |
Currency: current = in reported LCU present = in present-day LCU us = in US$ |
It is recommended to start any analysis conservatively with the non-calibrated data w1 and next to use the standardized data w2 and w3 (with increasing levels of data calibration / imputation). The standardized wage with country-specific calibration and imputation and lexicographic weighting (w3wl) is recommended for use because it provides the largest sample, it uses country-specific calibration to the extent possible and it uses lexicographic weights favoring raw data reported in standard format. The standardized data w4 do not use country-specific calibration and correspond to the standardization variant 2 in the initial release of the data for 1983-1998 (see NBER Working Paper 8058, table A.1). It is included for comparison.
QUESTIONS AND INFORMATION
If you have any questions about the OWW database please contact:
Remco Oostendorp
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
email: r.h.oostendorp@vu.nl
Related
Topics
Data Categories
More from NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability, the Bulletin on Health, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports, video lectures, and interviews.
