Cyclical, Intergenerational and Life Course Measures of Economic and Social Behavior: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), 2002-2006

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is a longitudinal study since 1968 of a representative sample of U.S. individuals and the family units in which they reside. The study's long-term span, innovative genealogical design, and comprehensive content have been critical to the fundamental understanding of a wide variety of key social science issues, including those involving life course effects. With thirty-plus years of data on the same families, the PSID can justly be considered a cornerstone of the infrastructure support for empirically based social science research. Through its long-term measures of economic and social well being, and based on its representative sample of U.S. families, the study has compelled both researchers and policy makers to confront and learn from the dynamism inherent in economic processes. The enormous usefulness of decades of data on the same families has made the PSID one of the most widely used social science data sets in the world. The project currently delivers 6,500 customized data sets a year to researchers via its Internet Data Center. Since 1968, over 2,000 journal articles, books and chapters, dissertations and other works have been based on PSID data. And the study has been named one of the National Science Foundation's `Nifty Fifty' most notable research efforts. The 1997-2001 funding cycle represented a major transition period for the PSID, in which the project implemented several important changes. In response to concern about dramatic growth in sample size, maintenance of representativeness, and fiscal constraints at the federal level, the project added a refresher sample of post-1968 immigrants and suspended a number of families from the original Census Bureau oversample of low-income families. Most importantly, the study moved to a bi-ennial data collection schedule, with consequent changes to the instrument in order to collect interwave information on key variables. All of these changes returned the study to a "steady state" that maintains a sample of about the same size, attains national representation inclusive of new entrants, and has proved less costly to run-while maintaining the study's traditionally high data quality. In addition, to facilitate greater use of the data set, content was expanded in six major areas (intergenerational studies; savings and consumption; technology and capital formation; health and aging; child development; and immigration). In the 2002-2006 funding cycle, the PSID stabilizes and maintains this new state of the study. In contrast to the pre-1997 state, the study's interview periodicity is now longer and its content is greatly expanded. The project focuses on improving the measures in areas affected by the longer periodicity, assessing the research value of the newly added content domains, and improving the processing and delivery of the data that is collected. Specifically, the project: 1. Expands content to facilitate investigation of current research questions and policy issues; 2. Continues the 1997-2001 cycle's data collection design changes, including biennial interviewing, with the associated cost reductions and productivity increases; 3. Integrates event history calendar methodology into the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) application to ensure data quality despite the greater time between interviews; 4. Maintains and improves several new systems for data editing, processing, and documentation; 5. Ensures that the study is the "Gold Standard" for income information through redesign of the CATI data collection instrument based on an Income and Wages Project; and 6. Improves and expedite data delivery through enhancements of the PSID web site Data Center. The renewal permits the PSID to perfect and assess the research value of the wider content areas and further facilitate usage of the study's data through improved data collection and processing. These efforts strongly reinforce the infrastructure value of the study in terms of the range of topics that can be addressed with the data and the ease of use for an ever-broadening range of social science scholars.