9515005 Stafford The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals (men, women, and children) and the family units in which they reside. It emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior, but its content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures. As of 1995, the PSID had collected information about more than 40,000 individuals spanning as much as 28 years of their lives. In the last five years, the PSID added enormously to the stock of knowledge about important areas such as health and wealth; added detailed information on the residential areas in which respondents live, on mortality, and on relationships among family members; and increased the accessibility of the data to users. The purpose of this grant is to transform this unique and premier social science data resource into a "steady state" panel representing the full U.S. population in perpetuity. A steady state panel is one designed to be self-regenerating, and so will greatly facilitate the study of the evolving income, assets, and well-being of American families over their life-cycle and, intergenerationally, that of their children. The PSID will also through supplements collect information that will increase its use in the future for: intergenerational studies; savings, technology and capital formation; health and aging; child development; and immigration. Most data panels are what can be called "transient" panels. A particular population is identified. An initial sample is drawn and an initial set of measurements collected, possibly including retrospective histories. The sample is followed for some specified or even indefinite length of time, so long as attrition, in combination with recontact efforts, and mortality permit. The panel is transient in that no plans are made to add new members of the same population at a future time. A steady-state panel has some mechanism or mechanisms designed to regenerate samples o f the same (or related) population at a later point in time. In the PSID, built-in mechanisms for regeneration include adding children born to sample parents as sample members in their own right and following splitoffs. But these mechanisms increased the sample size and the cost of the PSID and they do not capture the changes in the character of the U.S. population caused by the larger influx of immigrants since the start of the PSID in 1968. The PSID will be transformed into a "steady state" panel that would remain about the same size, attain and maintain long-term national representation (inclusive of new entrants), and prove less costly to run through the following changes: 1. Add a refresher sample of post-1968 immigrants to ensure that the PSID is representative of U.S. households in 1997. The immigrants would be added in proportion to their approximate representation in the U.S. population that year. Based upon the 1997 core sample size, this means adding about 750 immigrant households. 2. Delete the nonsample respondents currently followed (about 122), and extreme low weight cases (about 200). 3. Identify a longer periodicity group of 2,939 original 1968 families and related recontacts to suspend in 1997 and interview in 1999 with non-NSF funding. 4. Interview the remaining 5,929 core sample families, plus 750 immigrants and 300 recontracts, and their splitoffs, every other year, that is, in 3 of the 5 years: 1997, 1999, and 2001. 5. Conduct additional recontact efforts and follow the successful recontacted respondents so as to balance attrition in each of the survey years. 6. Continue Internet development for timely user access to the data. ??
