This report presents the findings of an investigation of alternative forms of weighting adjustment to compensate for panel nonresponse in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), an ongoing household panel survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Panel surveys like the SIPP experience some level of total nonresponse at the initial wave of data collection. This nonresponse corresponds to the total nonresponse that occurs with cross-sectional surveys. In addition to the initial wave nonresponse, panel surveys also experience further nonresponse at each of the subsequent waves of the panel. It is this additional nonresponse that is classified as panel nonresponse in this report. Panel nonresponse is thus the failure to collect the survey data for initial wave respondents for all waves of the panel for which they were eligible. The weighting adjustments studied here aim to modify the weights of panel respondents (i.e., those who provide data for all waves for which they are eligible) to compensate for the panel nonrespondents.

Under the current SIPP design, a national probability sample of households is selected each year, and all the adults aged 15 and over living in those households become panel members who are followed for approximately 2f(2,3) years. Interviews are conducted with these panel members at four-month intervals to collect data about income amounts received, participation in income maintenance programs, and other factors that may affect their income and economic welfare. Interviews are also conducted with the adults with whom they are living at the time of interview, and data are collected about children. Interviews are not attempted with panel members who enter institutions, but those who then leave the institution during the panel's life return to the panel. See Nelson, et al. (1985) and Jabine, et al. (1990) for further information on the SIPP design.

The SIPP panel sample comprises all the adults living in the original sample of households at the time of first interview. Panel respondents are members of the panel sample for whom data are collected for every wave for which they reside in the noninstitutional U.S. population. Panel respondents thus include panel members for whom data are collected for every wave until they leave the survey universe (through death, entering an institution, entering an armed forces barracks, or leaving the country). Panel nonrespondents are panel members who respond at the initial wave of data collection but fail to provide data for one or more of the subsequent waves for which they are eligible.