Reengineering the SIPP:
The New Dynamics of Economic
Well-being System
David Johnson
Brookings/Census Roundtable
Brookings Institution
June 8, 2006
1
Goals for Roundtable
• To describe our progress and options for the new
Dynamics of Economic Well-being system.
• To determine users’ needs for a new system, in
particular, the components that are necessary to
retain from the SIPP as well as the items that users
are willing to give up.
2
Reengineering the SIPP
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Goals for Dynamics of Economic
Well-being system
• The value-added of the dynamics of economic
well-being system is in providing a nationally
representative sample that can be used to
evaluate the annual and sub-annual dynamics of
income, the movements into and out of
government transfer programs, and the
interactions between these items.
4
Goals for Dynamics of Economic
Well-being system
• The Dynamics of Economic Well-being system will
– include a new survey data collection,
– require fewer resources than the current SIPP program,
– improve processing efficiency,
– be releasable to the public in a timely manner,
– integrate survey data and administrative records data
– make use of the richness of the new data collection in
the American Community Survey (ACS).
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Current Uses of SIPP
• Department of Agriculture
– Model food stamp eligibility and participation
• Department of Health and Human Services
– Measure the economic effects of welfare reform on children
and adults, and determine "triggers" that cause people to go
on or to go off programs.
• Social Security Administration
– Model SSI benefits, and examine the effects of benefits for
couples and surviving spouses.
• Researchers
– Use both the longitudinal and cross-sectional nature of SIPP
• Census Bureau
– Produce P70 reports on Dynamics of Economic Well-being
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Purpose of SIPP
• “The two primary goals of SIPP should be to provide improved
information on the distribution of income and other economic
resources for people and families and on eligibility for and
participation in government assistance programs.”
– The Future of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, NAS, 1993
• “... [The SIPP] provides an unprecedented opportunity to
ascertain the nature of income flows and program
participation, both for relatively short periods of time and over
extended periods of time, for individuals and families as they
experience changes in household composition, income, and
labor force participation.”
– Improving National Statistics on Children, Youth and Families, 1984
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SIPP and Administrative data
• “The planners of SIPP are to be congratulated for
their intention to combine administrative data
with field survey measurements. It is…clear that
combining such disparate sources of information
provides much richer insights into the status and
behavior of individuals.”
- James Smith, Journal of Economic
and Social Measurement, 1985
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Planning the new system
• Develop new survey component
– Content, Survey design, Survey instrument
• Construct cross-walk between current data
needs and administrative records availability
• Develop prototype
– National level and State level
• Develop data products
• Work with stakeholders to determine users’
needs
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New Survey: Basic versus supplemental products
Basic Topics
Demographics General Income
Labor Force
Health Insurance
Assets
Education
Program Participation
Child Support
Well-being
Wealth
Disability
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Possible sample sources
• There are several options for generating a
sampling frame:
– sampling from the Master Address File;
– sampling directly from ACS interviewed cases;
– sampling directly from administrative data;
– selecting all CPS cases matched from one ASEC to the
following year’s ASEC;
– using all CPS cases in outgoing rotations (all months);
and,
– using the existing SIPP sample already identified.
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Possible modes of data collection
Mail out/mail back
Paper and pencil
CAPI – computer assisted personal
interviewing
CATI – computer assisted telephone
interviewing
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Possible Recall Periods
4 – month recall
• 3 interviews per year
• each interview asks about each of the preceding 4 months
6 – month recall
• 2 interviews per year
• each interview asks about each of the preceding 6 months
12 – month recall (2 options)
• 1 interview per year asking about each of the preceding 12
months
• 1 interview per year and an event history calendar to derive
each of the preceding 12 months
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Administrative records successes
Medicare Enrollment
Database (MEDB)
Medicare health insurance coverage
Master Beneficiary
Record (MBR)
Work disability and source of general
income (e.g., Social Security)
IRS 1040, 1099-INT,
and 1099-DIV
Asset ownership, income/earnings from
a job, profit from a business,
unemployment compensation, receipt
of alimony
Census Numident
Demographic characteristics such as
age, race, Hispanic origin, citizenship
SSA SSR
Receipt of Federal/state SSI
HUD-TRACS
Public housing and receipt
of rent subsidies
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Match rates between survey data and
administrative SSN
100.0%
6.9%
80.0%
36.4%
60.0%
94%
40.0%
20.0%
50.2%
0.0%
2001 CPS
SSN Verification Address Search Name Search
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First Prototype: Matching CPS
and Medicaid (MSIS) data
MSIS data
Receipt of
Medicaid
MSIS
No Medicaid
Match and
possible
receipt
CPS
Recipient
0.4%
4.5%
6.2%
CPS
Non
Recipient
0.4%
84.5%
4.2%
16
First Prototype: Matching CPS
and Medicaid (MSIS) data
MSIS data
Receipt of
Medicaid
MSIS
No Medicaid
Match and
possible
receipt
CPS
Recipient
0.4%
4.5%
6.2%
CPS
Non
Recipient
0.4%
84.5%
4.2%
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First Prototype: Matching CPS
and Medicaid (MSIS) data
MSIS data
Receipt of
Medicaid
MSIS
No Medicaid
Match and
possible
receipt
CPS
Recipient
0.4%
4.5%
6.2%
CPS
Non
Recipient
0.4%
84.5%
4.2%
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Possible Data Products
Complete
Public
Data
DEWB
Internal files
and RDC
Synthetic
Data
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2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
SIPP ’04 Panel
Data Collection
2/04 – 9/06
SIPP ’04 Panel
Data Files Released
9/05 – 2/08
DEWB Planning
2006 – 2009
Time period
covered by
SIPP ’04 Panel
data files
2/04 – 9/06
Time period
covered by
the
prototype
2006 - 2007
Prototype
Release
2008
Time period
covered by
DEWB data
collection
2008
DEWB Data
Collection
2009 and on
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Assessing Users’ Needs
URL: http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Demographics Survey Division,
Survey of Income and Program Participation branch
Created: February 14, 2002
Last revised: May 10, 2006
Census Bureau Links: Home · Search · Subjects A-Z · FAQs · Data Tools · Catalog ·
Census 2000 · Quality · Privacy Policy · Contact Us
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Questions
• What aspects of the current SIPP do you feel are
the most important for measuring economic wellbeing? And In particular, what would you be
willing to give up?
• Do you have examples of research (or products)
that you regard as “best practices” in the use of
SIPP data?
• Do you have needs for both the cross-sectional
and longitudinal aspects of the data?
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Additional slides
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Synthetic Data:
Means for various retirement income sources using actual admin
data are similar to synthetic data for many demographic groups
(SIPP 2004 Panel and Monthly Benefit Amount)
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Own Retirement
Black Males - Admin
White Males - Admin
Disability
Aged Spouse
Black Males - Synthetic
White Males - Synthetic
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Percent found by SSN verification, ADDRESS,
and NAME search (CPS, SIPP and ACS)
100.0%
6.9%
7.7%
80.0%
17.8%
15.1%
36.4%
60.0%
94%
40.0%
20.0%
67.5%
74.4%
50.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2001 CPS
2001 SIPP
2001 ACS
SSN Verification Address Search Name Search
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