Monday, March 18, 2013

Access to CIHI Documentation

Question

Is the CIHI Discharge Abstract Database considered public (i.e., anyone who wants to can look at it), or are users required to agree to the license agreement before they can look at it? I have assumed the former, but it occurred to me that since there is a separate license on the look-up table program, they might want all of the formal documentation locked down.

Responses
The documentation would not be considered public – DLI authorises users only.

The files from CIHI are not considered public, if I understand your question correctly. In order to use the files, the DLI licence has to be signed, and only authorised DLI users are allowed to use the file.

Not all of the documentation included with the DAD data is available publicly. The DAD Data Quality (DQ) documents are the only resources that are also available on CIHI’s website.

Student Loans: Amount Loaned to Recipients

Question 

I am looking for data on the amount loaned to students from Canadian Student Loans from the Survey of Consumer Finance from 1993 to 2010. I could use most statistical packages. If the data is in .dta or .csv, that would be great. Please let me know if the library has the data. 

Answer

This survey has a fairly complex history. This link will set out the overall changes: <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3502 &lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2>

As mentioned, it was replaced by SLID – which has also been discontinued:

Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics
The final release of longitudinal data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics was published on June 18, 2012. Statistics Canada will continue to conduct a survey to produce annual estimates on income. <http://www42.statcan.ca/smr09/smr09_039a-eng.htm>

There is a website called Equinox: <http://equinox.uwo.ca/EN/BasicSearch.asp> where almost all of the Statistics Canada micro-data that have been released to universities through the DLI is available for down-load. The data files are all ASCII matrices, but command files are provided for the user to generate the format of choice. I would suggest that you check out the data there, as it will show you exactly what types of expenditure files were generated through the SCF while it was being conducted. If you have any problems using the Stata Do-files that you download from Equinox.

I does not look like data from the Canadian Student Loans Program is available.

However, I did a brief search and came across the following article Student loans: borrowing and burden (Product: Education Quarterly Review, vol. 8 no. 04) <http://www5.statcan.gc. ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=81-003-X20010046387>
, which addresses issues around student borrowing and debt loads, using data from the Canadian Student Loan Program. They survey consulted for this study was the National Graduates Survey(NGS)  <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5012&Item _Id=122603>

Another publication of potential interest: Student loans: Is it getting harder? Borrowing, burdens, and repayment <http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=81-589-X20010015847>. Dr. Finnie began his paper and his presentation by noting that since its commencement in 1964, the Canadian Student Loan Program (CSLP) has aided millions of Canadians in meeting career goals and taking their education to a higher level.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Use of General Social Survey 2008 - Cycle 22

Question
We were contacted by a STC analyst in regards to the use of the GSS cycle 22 by the DLI community:

I would like to get a sense of who in the DLI community is accessing this data and for what purpose. Ideally, I would like to know if the data is being referenced for a research paper, data tables, qualitative analysis, etc.

While I can provide to them data access statistics from the DLI FTP/EFT, any information you can share is greatly appreciated.

Answer

I can provide three examples of use at the University of Calgary for this particular survey:

- Sociology professor is teaching an advanced statistical methods course this semester and is using this survey.

- Undergraduate sociology class has a term project to use a public use microdata file to develop a research question and then do the quantitative analysis. GSS 22 is one of the files being used by students in this class, although I don’t know what their particular research questions are. This is the second iteration of this particular research project. It is running this semester and also ran last winter.

- Sociology professor used the GSS 22 to research the characteristics of same sex friendships amongst women.

Another few more are

2012 MA Thesis, Sociology, 2012

MPA Grad(uating) Paper, 2012

Metropolis BC Working Paper Series, 2012

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

CCHS 2008 Annual File

Question
I have a user who is wondering about the “CCHS 2008 Annual Component”: <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SurvId=3226&SurvVer=1& InstaId=15282&InstaVer=5&SDDS=3226&lang=en&db=IMDB&adm=8&dis=2>

Would I be correct in saying that the “CCHS 2007-2008 Annual Component” contains that survey? Or perhaps the “CCHS 2008-2009 Healthy Aging” file contains the “CCHS 2008 Annual Component”? He is intent on acquiring every piece of the CCHS if possible.

Answer

The Author Division responded with the list of CCHS annual PUMFs that are available:

- CCHS 1.1
- CCHS 2.1
- CCHS 3.1
- CCHS 2007-08
- CCHS 2009-10 and 2010 and the next release is in the Fall 2013.

There is no separate 2008 PUMF for the annual CCHS. There is also CCHS Healthy Aging (2008-09).