Leave Module Weights

USA
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently analyzing the correlation between Paid Leave and various demographic variables and have been using the Leave Module Weights for this analysis.

I have a couple of questions regarding the correct approach for calculating standard errors.

  1. Weighting Approach: Is it better to use aweight or pweight in STATA for this type of analysis? I came across a post mentioning that using the summarize function with aweights yields incorrect standard errors. Could someone confirm if employing svyset with pweights is indeed preferable for accurate standard error estimation?

  2. Optimizing Standard Error Calculations: To compute standard errors, I use the following code, where lvwt represents the Leave Module weight variable, and rlvwt_1 to rlvwt_160 denote the replication weights. Are these codes appropriate for the task, or is there a way to improve or refine them?

STATA codes:

svyset [pweight= lvwt], vce(brr) brrweight(rlvwt_1- rlvwt_160)

R codes:

df_wt ← df %>%
as_survey_rep(
weights = lvwt,
repweights = starts_with(“rlvwt_”),
type = “BRR”)

Thanks in advance for your guidance and advice!

2

All ATUS weights are probability weights and should therefore be specified as pweights.

Regarding replicate weights, there are multiple equivalent methods for implementing these as survey design parameters, though these methods differ slightly between Stata and R. In Stata, you may specify the replicate weights as either BRR (as you do in your example) or as SDR (Successive Difference Replication) weights. Identical standard errors and confidence intervals can be obtained through either command when additional options are specified:

  • For BRR, add the option fay(0.5)
  • For SDR, add the option dof(159)
  • For both BRR and SDR, add the option mse

For more information, see the svy variance estimation in Stata guide and section 7.5 of the ATUS user guide.

In R, you must specify the type as either “successive-difference” or “Fay” since “BRR” does not accept Fay’s adjustment. The option mse = TRUE should also be specified.