This conference aims to train young scholars in the use of an important data set, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and an innovative data analytic technique, event history analysis. Large-scale longitudinal data sets like the Panel Study of Income Dynamics have been available since the early 1970s, but they have not been fully exploited for dynamic analyses of changes over time. One technique for such dynamic analysis is event-history analysis, the name given to a set of methods for analyzing data on the dates of events, such as changes in employment or marital status, the composition of a household, or its poverty status. This conference has two components: a three-day workshop in which 15 young scholars will receive training in both the event history methodology and the use of the PSID data, and, 20 months later, a conference at which completed papers by these young investigators can be presented and critiqued. This workshop/conference format is especially valuable in training young scholars and in encouraging an earlier, higher return on investments in the PSID event-history data funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.
