Survey of Household Spending

Question

I am helping an economics professor with the Survey of Household Spending and he has a question about the age of the respondent variable. He would like to know if there is any way to obtain the exact age as opposed to just an age group. I checked the questionnaire and there is indeed a question about the age so the data must be available somewhere…  As a neophyte, I would also be curious to know the rationale for providing age groups rather than the exact age figure.

Anyway, the prof in question is used to the Survey of Consumer Finance (stopped in 1998) which apparently provided the exact age. So he would like to be able to obtain the same information with the SHS. Is there a master file available from a RDC for that survey?

Answer



The author division confirmed that the exact age is available on the RDC internal file for the SHS:

"Any Research Data centre should have a copy of the Internal files for the SHS for all years, or if they don't have one should get one on request. The exact ages are on the internal file, The Pumf uses age groups for confidentiality."

They also confirmed that custom tabulations are available, provided that the sample size is sufficient and there are no confidentiality issues with the particular variables being crossed. However, the Division encourages people to use the Research Data Centres to perform their own custom tabulations, so the professor can submit a proposal to use the RDC file if he wants to avoid the cost of a custom tabulation.