Errata

See also... FAQ The data files that are posted for each new wave are called Public Release. What does Public Release mean?

(Note: some errata items may also be in the Data News pages)

The data contained in Public Release I data files have been processed and edited, and should meet the research needs of most users. Users should  be aware that PSID data, as with the data from any complex longitudinal study, are subject to minor changes and subsequent updated releases, due primarily to economic and family composition data cleaning activities, that may necessitate revisions in previously released data files. It is therefore highly recommended that users retain and save all data files that are downloaded from this site and upon which individual research analysis is dependent, as only the most recently updated data files are retained by PSID staff for distribution.

A number of files have been reissued. If you have previously downloaded the affected files, you should read the information below and decide whether the changes would affect your analysis and if it is necessary for you to obtain the newer versions of the files.

The Public Release I of the 1999 Family file was reissued on 1/24/2002. 1. It includes corrected values for a few variables in the employment questions (B20-B21, B78-B82 [ER13234-ER13242, ER13362-ER13366]; C1-C2, C70-C74 [ER13464-ER13472, ER13615-ER13619]; D20-D21, D78-D82 [ER13746-ER13754, ER13874-ER13878]; and E1-E2, E70-E74 [ER13976-ER13984, ER14127-ER14131]).  In the PSID questionnaire, questions from Section B are asked about currently employed Heads and those from Section C are asked about all other Heads.  Section D is asked only for currently employed Wives/"Wives", and Section E is asked for other Wives/"Wives".  For example, although questions B20-B21, etc. are parallel with questions C1-C2, etc., employed Heads should have responses at B21, not C1.  But both variables contained values for responses, regardless of Head's employment status.  The Wife's/"Wife's" series also included this duplication of effort, that is, her responses were included in both the D and E questions.  This has been corrected so that only the proper series contains the responses for that person.  2. The values for ER13001 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 3; previously they were 2.

The Public Release I of the 1999 Family file was reissued on 10/10/2001. 1. It includes corrected values for all imputed income variables for the prior calendar year, 1998 (ER16448-ER16466). 2. The values for ER13001 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 2; previously they were 1. The corrected file is not available through the download/.ftp page; it is available only through the Data Center.

The Public Release II of the 1993 Family file was reissued on 3/30/00. It includes the following corrections.

1. Values for V22470 [B16 PAY/HR-PD HOURLY (HD-E)] and V22823 [D16 PAY/HR-HOURLY (WF-E)] have
been changed. These dollar amounts, current wage rates for presently employed heads and
        wives/"wives" who were paid hourly, were rounded down to the next whole dollar in release 2.
        See below for the corrected and uncorrected distributions.

	2. The values for V20601 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 3; previously they were 2.

The 1993 family codebook (93fam.txt) has been revised to reflect these changes and re-issued.


RELEASE 3 (CORRECTED) HOURLY WAGES OF HEAD

V22470             B16 PAY/HR-PD HOURLY (HD-E)                        Number: 870

  Type: Num   Width: 6    Decimals: 2  Location: 1591-1596


  B16. What is your hourly wage rate for your regular work time?

  The values for this variable represent dollars and cents per hour.


   661  0.01-997.99  Actual amount
     0       998.00  $998.00 or more
  2966       999.00  NA; DK
  6350         0.00  Inap.: not working for money now; is not
                     paid an hourly wage


  Missing Data: 999.00


  Valid N: 9842                Minimum: 0.00          Maximum: 950.00
  Mean: 4.24                   Std Dev: 20.52


RELEASE 2 (UNCORRECTED) HOURLY WAGES OF HEAD

V22470             B16 PAY/HR-PD HOURLY (HD-E)                     Reference: 870

  Type: Num   Width: 6    Decimals: 2  Location: 1591-1596
B16. What is your hourly wage rate for your regular work time?
The values for this variable represent dollars and cents per hour.
   661  0.01-997.99  Actual amount
     0       998.00  $998.00 or more
  2966       999.00  NA; DK
  6350         0.00  Inap.: not working for money now; is not
                     paid an hourly wage
Missing Data: 999.00

  Valid N: 7011                Minimum: 0.00          Maximum: 180.00
  Mean: 1.25                   Std Dev: 6.36


RELEASE 3 (CORRECTED) HOURLY WAGES OF WIFE/"WIFE"

V22823             D16 PAY/HR-HOURLY (WF-E)                          Number: 1223

  Type: Num   Width: 6    Decimals: 2  Location: 2275-2280


  D16. What is her hourly wage rate for her regular work time?

  The values for this variable represent dollars and cents per hour.


   319  0.01-997.99  Actual amount
     0       998.00  $998.00 or more
  1565       999.00  NA; DK
  8093         0.00  Inap.: no wife/"wife" in FU; not working
                     for money now; is not paid an hourly
                     wage


  Missing Data: 999.00


  Valid N: 9911                Minimum: 0.00          Maximum: 997.00
  Mean: 2.42                   Std Dev: 23.64


RELEASE 2 (UNCORRECTED) HOURLY WAGES OF WIFE/"WIFE"

V22823             D16 PAY/HR-HOURLY (WF-E)                       Reference: 1223
Type: Num   Width: 6    Decimals: 2  Location: 2275-2280
D16. What is her hourly wage rate for her regular work time?
The values for this variable represent dollars and cents per hour.
   319  0.01-997.99  Actual amount
     0       998.00  $998.00 or more
  1565       999.00  NA; DK
  8093         0.00  Inap.: no wife/"wife" in FU; not working
                     for money now; is not paid an hourly
                     wage
Missing Data: 999.00
  Valid N: 8412                Minimum: 0.00          Maximum: 150.00
  Mean: 0.43                   Std Dev: 3.40

Variable labels from the 1994-1997 Public Release I Family files were mislabeled. These variables, from questionnaire sections G11A (Profit Business) and G11B (Loss Business) were reversed. See the Public Release I Data page to download this most recent version.

Two variables from the 1997 Public Release I Family file contained erroneous data.  These variables, ER10012 and ER 10013, Number of Children in the FU and Age of Youngest Child, respectively, were corrected, and Release 3 is now ready.  See the Public Release I Data page to download this most recent version.

5/27/99

We made minor adjustments in the SPSS files of the 1994-1997 Hours of Work and Wage data. See the Supplemental Files page to download the updated version.

5/17/99

We reformatted the Public Release I versions of both the 1968-1997 Individual and the 1997 Cross-Year Family files and generated SAS and SPSS files based on these new formats. See the Public Release I Data page to download the most recent version.

8/25/98

Public Release I of the 1994, 1995 and 1996 Family File

The labels for amount of business profit and amount of business loss were reversed in the SAS and SPSS data definition statements. Files affected are those that were provided with the Public Release I version of the 1994 Family file issued 8/24/96, the 1995 Family file issued 5/9/96 and the 1996 Family file issued 3/21/97. (The variable labels provided for these variables in the Public Release I version of the 1993 Family file, since replaced by the Public Release II version, were correct.)

Public Release I 1994, 1995 and 1996 Family data obtained from the online Data Center will also have incorrect labels for these variables. The Public Release I cross-year variable list issued with the 1996 file also contained incorrect labels.

See the corrected listing below and make appropriate changes in your files if you are using these variables. Revised files will not be issued.

8/6/98

1990 Telephone Health Questionnaire Supplement File

Wildly improbable values of $5,000,000 for a few cases have been discovered for five variables in this data set. We suggest you re-code these values to missing data for analysis. We do not plan to reissue the file.

These errors occur in the 1990 Telephone Health Questionnaire Supplement file on the Internet issued in March 1995 and the version on the CD-ROM issued December 1995.

6/19/98

1990 Census Extract Files

We have reason to believe the following variables in the six 1990 Census Extract files were calculated incorrectly and advise that they not be used.

V1511     WHT YNGADLT DROPOUT
V1512     WHT YNGADLT NOT SCHOOL
V1513     WHT YNGADLT W/ED STATUS
V1521     BLK YNGADLT DROPOUT
V1522     BLK YNGADLT NOT SCHOOL
V1523     BLK YNGADLT W/ED STATUS
V1531     LAT YNGADLT DROPOUTS
V1532     LAT YNGADULT NOT SCHOOL
V1533     LAT YNGADLT W/ED STATUS

In addition, while V411-V416 are not obviously wrong, the numbers on which they are based (V1511, etc.) are clearly incorrect, so we can't trust V411-V416.

V411      % WHT YNGADLT DROPOUTS
V412      % WHT YNGADLT NOT SCHOOL
V413      % BLK YNGADLT DROPOUTS
V414      % BLK YNGADLT NOT SCHOOL
V415      % LAT YNGADLT DROPOUTS
V416      % LAT YNGADLT NOT SCHOOL

We do not, at this time, have plans to reissue the files.

5/06/98

1968-1985 Relationship File Reissued

The 1968-1985 Relationship file has been reissued. Two problems were discovered with the assumptions made in classifying relationships in the original file. These both affect stepchild relationships. The classifications based on the 1983-1985 relationship-to-head codes resulted in no stepchildren and the classifications based on the demographic history information resulted in too many stepchildren. See additional notes for a more detailed description of changes. The codebook documentation for the file has been revised to correspond to the corrected file.

3/05/98

Public Release II of the 1993 Family File Reissued

The Public Release II of the 1993 Family file was reissued on 2/14/98. It includes the following corrections.

For the Public Release II 1993 Family data file:

1. Values for V22405 (NUMBER IN FAMILY UNIT) and V23321 (# OF INDIVIDUAL RECORDS) have been changed. For about 60% of all 1993 families, those where the head was married, the values of these two variables in Release 1 were one greater than they should have been. See below for the corrected and uncorrected distributions.

2. The values for V20601 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 2; previously they were 1.

The 1993 family codebook has been revised to reflect these changes and re-issued.

RELEASE 2: NUMBER IN FAMILY UNIT
 
 

V22405	Frequency	Cumulative Frequency
1	2299	2299
2	2603	4902
3	1865	6767
4	1760	8527
5	885	9412
6	361	9773
7	109	9882
8	54	9936
9	25	9961
10	8	9969
11	4	9973
12	3	9976
13	1	9977

 

RELEASE 1: NUMBER IN FAMILY UNIT
 
 

V22405	Frequency	Cumulative Frequency
1	2299	2299
2	920	3219
3	2359	5578
4	1505	7083
5	1596	8679
6	803	9482
7	320	9802
8	95	9897
9	46	9943
10	20	9963
11	7	9970
12	4	9974
13	2	9976
14	1	9977

 

RELEASE 2: # OF INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
 
 

V23321	Frequency	Cumulative Frequency
1	2054	2054
2	2508	4562
3	1878	6440
4	1871	8311
5	958	9269
6	431	9700
7	156	9856
8	62	9918
9	37	9955
10	9	9964
11	6	9970
12	5	9975
14	2	9977

 

RELEASE 1: # OF INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
 
 

V23321	Frequency	Cumulative Frequency
1	2054	2054
2	943	2997
3	2286	5283
4	1549	6832
5	1678	8510
6	854	9364
7	383	9747
8	125	9872
9	60	9932
10	26	9958
11	8	9966
12	6	9972
13	3	9975
15	2	9977

4/28/97

Public Release II of the 1992 Family file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1992 Family data file:

1. Values for V21547 (1992 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT), V21548 (1992 LATINO FAM WEIGHT) and V21549 (1992 COMBINED FAM WEIGHT) have been changed. The changes affect virtually all 1992 families.
2. The values for V20301 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 002; previously they were 714.
3. The values of a few variables for four cases have been changed.

• For the Public Release II 1992 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. The label for V20301 has been changed to RELEASE NUMBER (2); previously it was STUDY NUMBER (714).

Background

• for the core families,
  • the 1992 COMBINED FAM WEIGHT contained the value of the 1992 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT and
  • the 1992 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT contained the value of the 1992 COMBINED FAM WEIGHT;
• for the Latino families,
  • the 1992 COMBINED FAM WEIGHT contained the value of the 1992 LATINO FAMILY WEIGHT and
  • the 1992 LATINO FAMILY WEIGHT contained the value of the 1992 COMBINED FAM WEIGHT.

• V20302 (1992 INTERVIEW NUMBER)
• V21522 (MARITAL STATUS 1992)
• V21523 (91-92 CNG MARITAL STATUS)
• V21524 (COUPLE STATUS OF HEAD)
• V20657 (A3 MARITAL STATUS)
• V20673 (A23 HAVE MORTGAGE?)
• V20674 (A27 #YRS LEFT TO PAY MTG)
• V20675 (A28 SECOND MORTGAGE?)
• V20676 (A29 MTG INCL PROP TAXES)
• V20677 (A30 MTG INCL INS PREM)
• V20326 (1992 REM MORT PRIN (A24))
• V20327 (ACC REM MORT PRIN)
• V20330 (92 ANN PROP TAX (A21))
• V20331 (ACC ANN PROP TAX)

• if v20302=07459 then v21522=1 and v21523=1 and v21524=1 and v20657=1
• if v20302=00084 then v20673=1 and v20674=11 and v20675=5 and v20676=5 and v20677=5
• if v20302=05347 then v20673=1 and v20674=99 and v20675=5 and v20676=1 and v20677=1
• if v20302=04550 then v20326=0 and v20327=0 and v20330=00806 and v20331=2

12/06/96

Public Release I version of the 1968-1995 Individual file

10/7/96

Public Release II of the 1968-1992 Individual file, reissued

These changes affect the 1968-1992 Individual file on the CD-ROM issued in December 1995 and the version on the Internet issued in December 1995.

8/14/96

Public Release II of the 1985-1992 Childbirth and Adoption History file, reissued

These changes affect the 1985-1992 Childbirth and Adoption History file on the CD-ROM issued in December 1995 and the version on the Internet issued in January 1996.

7/30/96

Public Release II of the 1991 Family file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1991 Family data file:

1. The values for V19001 (RELEASE NUMBER) have been changed to 003; previously they were 002.
2. Values for V20243 (1991 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT) and V20244 (1991 LATINO FAM WEIGHT) have been recomputed; the change affects 282 core families and 290 Latino families. V20245 (COMBINED FAM WEIGHT) is not affected.

Background

In release 2 of the file, 282 core families have 1991 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT = 0 and 1991 LATINO FAM WEIGHT 0, and 290 Latinos have 1991 LATINO FAM WEIGHT = 0 and 1991 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT 0.

To fix the release 2 data, the core cases need the 1991 LATINO FAM WEIGHT values moved to the 1991 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT variable and vice versa for the Latinos.

You can identify core and Latino cases by the values of V19321 (1968 ID) -- the core cases have values in the range of 0001 to 6872, Latino cases have values in the range of 7001 to 9308.

Thus if you wish to make the changes on your own to release 2 of the file, you will want to do the following:

if V19001=2 and V19321 in(0001-6872) and V202440 then V20243=V20244 and V20244=0 and V19001=3

if V19001=2 and V19321 in(7001-9308) and V202430 then V20244=V20243 and V20243=0 and V19001=3

2/19/96

Data Definition Statements, Reissued

1/1/96

Public Release II of the 1985-1992 Childbirth and Adoption History file, reissued

12/08/95

Public Release II of the 1968 Family file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1968 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. New SAS and SPSS statements have been provided. The earlier ones provided incorrect variable locations for V173 and all subsequent variables; only the locations provided for V1 - V172 were correct in the earlier statements. The OSIRIS dictionary was correct as originally issued and has not been reissued.

Public Release II of the 1968-1992 Individual file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1968-1992 Individual dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. New SAS and SPSS statements have been provided. The SAS statements provided earlier contained an extraneous ";" preceding the reference to V32700. For both the SAS and SPSS statements, the LRECL was incorrect (three bytes short -- 1885 when it should have been 1888). The OSIRIS dictionary was correct as originally issued and has not been reissued.

Public Release II of the 1979 Family file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1979 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. A carriage return character has been added to the end of each record. The lack of a carriage return caused some systems to not properly recognize the end of a line.

10/15/95 - 10/20/95

SPSS and SAS setups for merging, revised

1968-1992 Alphabetical Index of Individual-Level Variables, reissued

Public Release II of the 1968-1992 Individual file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1968-1992 Individual data file:

1. The 1991 & 1992 COMPLETED EDUCATION variables (V30703 & V30748) were incomplete. They were missing Head & Wife/"Wife" data.
2. A carriage return character has been added to the end of each data record. The lack of a carriage return caused some systems to not recognize the end of a line.
3. V32700 has been added to the end of the file; it has values of 002 for all records. As a result of adding this variable, the logical record length of the file has changed from 1885 to 1888.

• For the Public Release II 1968-1992 Individual dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. A carriage return character had been added to the end of each data definition statement. The lack of a carriage return caused some systems to not recognize the end of a line.
2. V32700, RELEASE NUMBER, has been added.

Public Release II of the 1990, 1991 and 1992 Family files, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1990 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. Titles updated

• For the Public Release II 1991 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. SPSS statements LRECL (logical record length) corrected
2. SAS & SPSS statements include missing data definitions

• For the Public Release II 1992 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. SPSS statements include missing data definitions

8/17/95

Public Release I version of the 1968-1993 Individual file, reissued

• For the Public Release I 1968-1993 Individual data file:

1. For 1993 movers-in who were not the 1993 Head of the family, 1990, 1991, and 1992 INTERVIEW NUMBER (variables ER30642, ER30689 and ER30733) have been filled with the appropriate ID values; previously these cases had values of zero for these three variables.
2. For 1993 movers-in, the variables labeled TYPE OF IND RECORD and WHY NONRESPONSE, coded annually for 1968-1991, have been filled with the correct values; previously these cases had values of zero for each pair of these variables.
3. For 1993 movers-in, SEX OF INDIVIDUAL (variable ER32000) has been filled with valid data; previously these cases had values of zero, a wild code.
4. Several record-level corrections have been made. These corrections have resulted in a decrease in the total number of records in the Public Release I 1968-1993 Individual file. The file now contains 53,017 records; previously it contained 53,022 records.
5. The values for RELEASE NUMBER (variable ER30000) have been changed to 2; previously this variable contained values of 1.

8/16/95

Public Release II of the 1991 Family file, reissued

• For the Public Release II 1991 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. The label for V19001 has been changed to RELEASE NUMBER; previously it was STUDY NUMBER (714).

• For the Public Release II 1991 Family data file:

1. The values for V19001 have been changed to 002; previously they were 714.
2. 1991 COMBINED FAMILY WEIGHT (variable V20245) has been recomputed.

Other final family-year files, reissued

They include the following files with these corrections.

• For the 1979 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. The MD2 specification of zero was removed from V6786 (BKT AGE WIFE 1979) and V6788 (EDUCATION OF 1979 WIFE)

• For the 1971 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. The label for V1801 has been changed to RELEASE NUMBER; previously it was STUDY 768 (WAVE 4).

• For the 1971 Family data file:

1. The values for V1801 have been changed to 002; previously they were 768.
2. Wild codes have been removed from V1806 (COVERSHEET COLOR).

• For the 1968 Family dictionary files (SAS, SPSS and OSIRIS):

1. The label for V2 has been changed to 5 DIGIT ID (V3, V4 COMB); previously it was INTERVIEW NUMBER 68.
2. The label for V3 has been changed to INTERVIEW NUMBER 68; previously it was FAMILY NUMBER 1:6-9.