The York Research Database

In this chapter we describe what the first five waves of the European
Commmunity Household Panel (ECHP) can tell us about health status, labour
force behaviour, income and wealth of the elderly across the European Union
(EU). Information of this kind is very important for public policy given the
rapidly growing fraction of elderly in the European population.
The ECHP is an annual longitudinal survey carried out throughout the EU
under the coordination of the Statistical Office of the European Communities
(Eurostat). The survey began in 1994 as a three-wave panel and was later
extended to nine waves. Its main purpose is to collect comparable
information on demographic characteristics, income (especially earnings and
public transfers), labour market behaviour (including job search activities),
health, education and professional training, housing, migration and
geographical mobility, at both the household and the personal level. In order
to ensure a high level of comparability, the survey design is highly
standardized across countries. The ECHP is expected to end in year 2002 and
will be replaced by the new survey EU–Statistics on Income and Living
Conditions (EU–SILC), whose design and structure is not entirely clear yet.
It is therefore important to understand what we can learn from the ECHP and
what its limitations are as a source of information on the characteristics and
behaviour of the elderly in Europe.