Microdata sources for research on
the Economics of Tobacco Control
Lynn Woolfrey
Economics of Tobacco Control Workshop
University of Cape Town 25 June 2015
Around
100,000
teenagers
start
smoking
each day
Photo: Copyright: WHO
Researchers
Need to know
what data
sources exist
and how to
access and
appraise them
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
SUPPORT
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
SUPPORT
Exercise 1
• Find tobacco related data for your country
Use the following data discovery tools:
DataFirst’s data portal
• The World Bank’s microdata catalog
Data portal of your National Statistics Office
• Open Access? Research Access Only?
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
Does the dataset provide the
data we need?
SUPPORT
Exercise 2
• Check the following to see if the data is
relevant to your research:
• Survey metadata
• Questions in the survey questionnaires
• Variable names and labels
Example
Demographic and Health surveys for your countries: question
text:
• Do you currently smoke cigarettes?
• In the last 24 hours, how many sticks of cigarettes did you
smoke?
• Do you currently smoke or use any other type of tobacco?
• What (other) type of tobacco do you currently smoke or use?
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
Can we compare the data
across countries?
over time?
Between different surveys for
the same country?
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
SUPPORT
Exercise 3
• Examine the metadata provided with the data
to see how this helps you to compare
datasets
• Look at data from a survey series for one
country to determine what data collectors
have done to ensure comparable data
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
How recent is the tobacco
research data we can access?
SUPPORT
Exercise 3
• Check the reference dates of all datasets for
your country that contain data useful to
researchers on the project
• Data reference date (date of collection, not
date of production of the dataset)
• Are data producers providing current statistics?
• Why the time-lag in access?
ACCESS
RELEVANCE
COMPARABILITY
TIMELINESS
Can we get help with data
analysis?
SUPPORT
Exercise 4
• Open a data file and tabulate the relevant
variables
• How easy is the data to use?
• Check to see that all the supporting
documentation has been provided
• Can the metadata help here?
• Log a query on DataFirst’s support site
Questions?