Assessing the Quality of the March Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation Income Estimates, 1990 - 1996
Introduction
This investigation attempts to develop administrative benchmarks of income compatible with the March Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), two income surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Many people are reluctant to reveal their incomes to survey researchers, and this reluctance makes such surveys particularly prone to response errors. A respondent can fail to report receipt of income, fail to report the amount, under-report or over-report the amount, or misclassify income. These errors can in turn cause an imputation system to mis-allocate incomes to those respondents who do not provide answers to questions. Because of the potential for error, many researchers and data users would like to know how complete the March CPS and SIPP income estimates are. Comparing aggregate income from the surveys to administrative benchmarks addresses this need by quantifying the net effect of response and other errors.
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