The Microdata Access Grant offers financing of research projects using CBS microdata. In the 2023 round of the Call for Proposals for the Microdata Access Grant we have received 22 applications. The reviewers in this round were:
Pieter Bakx (EUR), Maja Djundeva (SCP), Kim Fairley (RU), Eva Jaspers (UU), Joop Oude Groeninger (EUR).
The following projects were awarded in 2023 (in alphabetical order):
Zichen Deng (University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Coen van de Kraats (Erasmus University Rotterdam, School of Economics (ESE))
The Societal Benefits and Costs of Paid Paternity Leave: Employer, Worker, and Family Responses
While the economic position of women has improved substantially over the last century, gender inequality remains large in all countries. To further close the gender gap, governments are increasingly incentivizing fathers to take leave from work and spend more time on childcare. Such policies aim to create a more level playing field with mothers in the labor market, who are absent from work due to pregnancy, and to foster a more equal division of parenting and household tasks. In this project, we study recent expansions of paid paternity leave in the Netherlands – from just 2 days before 2019 to 15 weeks in 2022 – to (1) quantify the societal benefits and costs of paid paternity leave and through this (2) understand its impact on economic gender inequality. To do so, we examine how fathers’ leave-taking affects a wide range of outcomes and behaviors of fathers, mothers, children, employers, and coworkers.
Katya Ivanova (Tilburg University, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (TSB)), Alessandro Di Nallo (Bocconi University), Selin Köksal (ISER – University of Essex)
Pregnancy loss following an in-utero exposure to job loss: Evidence from Netherlands
Pregnancy loss is a public health matter affecting 11 to 21% of clinically detected pregnancies in high-income countries. Along with biological and lifestyle factors, psycho-social sources of stress such as natural disasters, economic downturns and financial instability may put pregnancies at risk. While an exposure to job loss during the gestation might be linked to an increased risk of pregnancy loss, despite the buffer of unemployment benefits. Yet, no study has provided evidence on whether an individual-level job loss affects the course of the pregnancy. We investigate whether the exposure to a job loss during pregnancy increases the risk pregnancy loss, namely miscarriage and stillbirth, in the Netherlands – a country with relatively generous unemployment benefits. We rely on high-quality Dutch register data, which allows us to link firm register, employment histories and hospitalisation records. By shedding light on the repercussions of job loss on maternal health, this study informs policymakers about the broader effectiveness of unemployment buffers and can provide recommendations on policy improvements.
Anne Maaike Mulders (Radboud University, Faculty of Social Sciences), Bas Hofstra (Radboud University, Faculty of Social Sciences), Jochem Tolsma (Radboud University, Faculty of Social Sciences & University of Groningen, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences)
Social Networks as Change Agents for Equal Career Opportunities of Dutch PhDs?
To what extent and why are some groups more likely to continue their careers outside academia? If PhDs transition into the labor market, how could we explain gender and ethnicity-based differentials in where they end up (e.g., public versus private sector)? What determines inequality in success in academia (e.g., grants) and outside academia (e.g., income)? Using big data of nearly all Dutch PhD-recipients, 1990-2022 (~100K PhDs), this project aims to answer these questions on gender and ethnic inequality among Dutch PhD-recipients and is among the first to follow their complete academic and non-academic careers. By devoting special attention to social networks during the PhD – information which is already collected and curated –, the project uniquely pinpoints how role models and social contexts distinctly shape PhD recipients’ careers depending on their gender and ethnicity. With the help of the Microdata Access Grant, the project can link PhD-recipients to non-academic careers.
Margriet van Hek (Radboud University, Faculty of Social Sciences), Zoltán Lippényi (University of Groningen, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences)
Healthy diversity: do more female managers reduce the likelihood of mental-health related long-term sickness absence among employees?
Despite ongoing discussions about the benefits of women in the leadership of work organisations, there exists little quantifiable evidence to what degree female managers’ presence benefits workers’ well-being. We employ an innovative study design using linked employer-employee longitudinal microdata that overcomes major limitations of surveys in studying work & health (e.g. selection, response, and social desirability biases). Using linked data, we investigate how female managers in SME organisations (Dutch: MKB) impact the incidence of mental-health-related long-term sickness absence among employees. We employ dynamic workplace panel analyses to establish a causal effect and explore heterogeneities along employee gender & parenthood of employees, parenthood of managers, and organization size. In addition to novel scientific insights, our research linking diversity in organisations to employee well-being has potentially important organizational policy implications for work organisations.
Wiljan van den Berge (Utrecht University, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (REBO), Sabrina Genz (Utrecht University, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (REBO)
The impacts of adopting new technology: firm- and worker-level evidence
Advancing technologies are increasingly able to automate tasks and even jobs. This raises concerns that new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics will displace workers and lead to increasing inequality. In this project, we exploit a survey on the use of new technologies by firms over the last three decades. This rarely used dataset includes questions on the use of various new technologies by firms, including robotics, AI and ICT. We link this survey to administrative data on workers and firms in the Netherlands. We first examine which firms adopt which types of technologies. In the second part of the project, we examine the impact of the adoption of new technology on the workforce composition of the firm and workers’ employment prospects and wage dynamics. We are particularly interested in which technologies are complementary to which workers, and can hence create new employment opportunities for the future.
Bettina Siflinger (Tilburg University, Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM), Lena Janys (Newcastle University)
Childcare, mental health and education – Evidence from childcare subsidy changes in the Netherlands
In this project we investigate the impact of subsidized childcare on children’s mental health and cognitive development in the Netherlands. Utilizing different administrative data sources, we combine a reduced form approach and a structural dynamic model of child development to improve our understanding of how mental health and cognitive development interact throughout childhood and at which ages in childhood daycare utilization is most beneficial for children with different socioeconomic backgrounds. We then use our structural parameter estimates to simulate the consequences for inequality in children’s development of a free-of-charge childcare policy. The results of our study will directly inform the recent discussion in the Netherlands about abolishing the current subsidized childcare scheme in favor of making childcare free-of-charge.
Conducting Research with CBS microdata
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) collects a wide range of data for its statistical tasks, many of them microdata at the level of individual persons or organisations. Protection of the confidentiality of the data has the highest priority for CBS. Within strict safety conditions however, universities and other authorized research institutes can get Remote Access to such data to perform statistical analyses for their own scientific or statistical purposes. The microdata themselves remain strictly within a secure environment within CBS. Under applicable conditions researcher can also bring in additional dataset to be linked with CBS microdata. Before aggregate statistical results are exported from the secured environment, CBS will check whether these results do not contain any risk for disclosure of information on individual persons or organisations.
Read more about using microdata within the CBS Remote Access Environment.
Next Microdata Access Grant call
The next round of the Microdata Access Grant is expected to open in the autumn of 2023 (with the closing date in early December). Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all updates on ODISSEI calls and events.