PSID Cross-sectional Individual Weights, 1997-2009

This technical report documents the methodology and properties for a series of weights that have been developed for cross-sectional analysis of individual data from the 1997-2009 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID longitudinal analysis weights for individuals and families are documented in Heeringa et al. (2011) and Gouskova, et al. (2008). While researchers have always been able to perform cross-sectional analysis using longitudinal weights for PSID sample persons, the new cross-sectional weights offer an additional approach for weighted cross-sectional estimation based on the PSID individual data. Specifically, the PSID cross-sectional weights permit analysts to use all available data for both PSID sample persons and non-sample persons to estimate population characteristics or model population relationships at specific points in time. In addition, the cross-sectional weights are post-stratified to the population characteristics from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the respective year. This is not the case for the longitudinal weights. PSID plans to provide the cross-sectional weights for each future wave. This technical report is organized in four sections. Section I defines sample and non-sample persons in the PSID and explains the rationale for creating the cross-sectional weights. The “fair shares ” methodology that underlies the construction of the PSID cross-sectional weights is discussed in Section II. Section III describes how the cross-sectional weights are constructed. The report concludes in Section IV with a descriptive analysis of the weights, including comparisons of distributions of U.S. socioeconomic characteristics using weighted estimates from the the CPS and PSID