The Polish LFS: A Rotating Panel with Attrition

A large literature on Poland’’’s economic transition has been based on the Polish Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which is the primary labour market data collection effort of the Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS, the Polish Central Statistical Office). The PLFS has a longitudinal structure, belonging to the family of rotating panels with a 2-2-2-rotation scheme, and covers the period from 1992 until now.
In addition to the usual sample attrition, longitudinal data is also affected by panel attrition. This is the loss of observations in the matched data file relative to two consecutive surveys. Ex ante causes of panel attrition include residence changes, refusals to answer the questionnaire due, for instance, to sampling (or panel) fatigue1 and, to a lesser extent, the death of the interviewee. Measurement and reporting errors can also cause ex post failures to match observations in two consecutive surveys.