The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Event History Calendar (EHC) Field Test was conducted from late March to late May 2008 in two states - Illinois and Texas. The goal of the field test was to determine whether the use of EHC methods with a reference period of one year will yield quality data comparable to that of the traditional scripted and standardized questionnaire (with a 4 month reference period) currently used in the production SIPP survey.

SIPP is a nationally-representative panel survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey collects data on income, wealth, and poverty in the United States, the dynamics of program participation, and the effects of government programs. All current SIPP interviews are interviewer administered, conducted with a computer-assisted questionnaire; the first interview is administered in-person, subsequent interviews are generally conducted via telephone. See U.S. Census Bureau (2001) for a more complete description of the current SIPP program.