For the 2004 panel wave 3 and wave 6 Stocks and Mutual Funds Topical Module, an instrument programming error incorrectly set the universe for the collection of "in own name" stock and mutual fund amount data of respondents. The amount data for "joint owners" of stocks and mutual funds were not affected by this instrument error.

The determination of sole and joint ownership of stocks and mutual funds was made in the "core" section of the instrument. Answers to these ownership questions determined whether respondents were asked the own-name or joint ownership sets of stock and mutual fund topical module questions. Given the instrument programming error, respondents indicating ownership of stocks or mutual funds in their own name were not asked the own-name topical module question set.

As a result, the variables ESMI, ESMIV, ESMIMA, and ESMIMAV were affected. Sole owners of stocks and mutual funds were not asked the questions pertaining to the above variables. The recode variable RHHSTK, which combines own-name and joint-owner amount data for the household, does not contain amount data for sole owners of stocks and mutual funds; only data for joint owners of stocks and mutual funds are present in this recode variable.

An extract file has been created which contains imputed values for the variables ESMI, ESMIV, ESMIMA, and ESMIMAV (the extract file for wave 3 data is available now; the extract file for wave 6 data is forthcoming). This extract file can be merged with the existing public use topical module file, thereby allowing users to reconstruct the recode variable RHHSTK. Dollar values for those in-universe individuals missing own-name stock and mutual fund amount data were imputed by applying a factor based on the correlation between own-name and joint stock and mutual fund amount data from the 2001 panel of SIPP. This factor varied by age and race group.

Alternatively, given that complete data concerning ownership of stocks and mutual funds were collected in the core section of the instrument, users can perform their own imputation to produce amount data for respondents owning stocks and mutual funds in their own name.