Assessing Asset Data on Low-Income Households - Urban Institute

age, while the NLSY79 is representative of men and women who were ages 14 to 22 when first
interviewed in 1979. The HMDA data is a data set of loan records provided by financial
institutions (in 2004 41.6 million loan records submitted by 8,121 financial institutions). This
data set includes loan applications from most mortgage lending institutions, so it should be
representative of all low-income loan applicants; however, it may be difficult to identify lowincome
households due to a lack of correlates.
Finally, three data sets are not representative of the U.S. low-income population and
received a rating of “3.” All three are derived from demonstration projects where individuals
were able to self-select into the program; thus, the resulting sample includes a select population
who chose program participation. The three data sets are ADD-AM, ADD-E, and AFIA, where
the ADD-E and AFIA received the highest rating under the relevancy criterion.
C. Recurrence: Whether <strong>Data</strong> Are Released on a Regular Basis and Collection Is
Scheduled to Continue into the Foreseeable Future
The majority of data sets reviewed have been released on a regular basis (eight of the 12). Under
this criterion, a rating of “1” or “2” indicates a survey that has been released on a regular basis.
However, a “1” indicates that the data set will continue into the foreseeable future and “2”
indicates that the data set is not scheduled to continue into the foreseeable future. Of the three
primary data sets, the SCF and PSID receive a rating of “1” and the SIPP receives a rating of
“2.” The SIPP received a rating of “2” because there is uncertainty about the future funding of
the SIPP. 7 Under the current design, SIPP provides annual asset data, PSID biennial data, and
SCF triennial data. The PSID interviews sample members every other year and the SCF
interviews a new sample every three years. Stringing together multiple SIPP panels provide
annual asset data—the 2001 and 2004 SIPP panels cover the years 2001-2003 and 2004-2007
respectively.
Among the secondary data sets, five received the highest rating—the HRS, NLSY79,
CEX, CPS, and HMDA data. The CEX provides asset data on a quarterly basis, the CPS and
HMDA data provide annual data, and the HRS and NLSY79 are currently administered
biennially.
Finally, four data sets received the lowest rating of “3,” indicating that data collection is
not scheduled into the future and has not been released on a regular basis. The NSFH receives a
rating of “3,” because data were collected infrequently (in 1987-88, 1992-94, and 2001-02) and
there are no plans for further data collection. Similarly, ADD-AM and ADD-E receives a “3” as
the data collection under the American Dream Demonstration (ADD) was not regular and is now
7 Over the period that this report was in development, the future of the SIPP was unclear. In February 2006, the
Census Bureau announced that, due to funding constraints, the SIPP would be discontinued following the release of
2004 panel data. Although a replacement data set, Dynamics of Economic Well-being System (DEWS) was
proposed and discussed, a 2008 SIPP panel is now planned, subject to funding. More information on the reengineered
SIPP can be found at: http://www.bls.census.gov/sipp/dews.html
14