Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CHILDID Variable

Question

Are the NLSCY CHILDID variables comparable from cycle to cycle. Given that in cycle 1, CHILDID is defined as numeric, but in cycles 2 and 3 it’s a string we weren't sure.

Answer

It’s not the same person in the cross-sectional files.The numbers might happen to be the same in the cross-sections, but they don’t refer to the same person (as otherwise, it would be a longitudinal file).