Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Name	Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Abbr	PSID
Established	1968
Country	United States
Discipline	Sociology; Demography; Economics
Sponsor	University of Michigan

Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is a longitudinal household survey started in 1968 that tracks families and individuals to study income, wealth, health, and demographic change. It informs research on poverty, mobility, retirement, and inequality and has been used by scholars at Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University. Major users include analysts at the Brookings Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research, RAND Corporation, Urban Institute, and World Bank.

Overview

PSID follows families and their descendants across generations, collecting information on income, employment, assets, health, and housing that supports work by researchers affiliated with American Economic Association, Population Association of America, American Sociological Association, National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation. The dataset has been cited in studies involving policymakers from the United States Department of Labor, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Congressional Budget Office, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Social Security Administration. Longitudinal linkage and geocoding features allow connections to records from the Internal Revenue Service, Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Education.

History and Development

PSID was launched at the University of Michigan by investigators inspired by earlier panels like the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (precursors) and international efforts such as the British Household Panel Survey, German Socio-Economic Panel, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, and the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Early leadership included scholars associated with Institute for Social Research, and the study expanded through collaborations with institutions such as Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and Duke University. Funding and oversight have involved grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and cooperative agreements with agencies including the Social Security Administration and Department of Health and Human Services.

Design and Methodology

PSID employs a genealogical design that follows original sample families and their descendants, enabling analyses across cohorts such as the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. Survey instruments incorporate modules aligned with measures used by studies from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Eurostat, World Health Organization, and the OECD. Fieldwork and data collection methods have been coordinated with contractors like Westat, NORC at the University of Chicago, and GfK. Analytical techniques developed with PSID data draw on methods from researchers linked to NBER working papers and textbooks by scholars associated with MIT Press, Princeton University Press, and Oxford University Press.

Major Findings and Contributions

Findings from PSID underpin influential results on intergenerational mobility cited by scholars at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Columbia University. Research using PSID informs debates addressed in reports from the Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, Economic Policy Institute, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, and Pew Research Center. PSID-based studies have illuminated patterns relevant to programs administered by the Social Security Administration, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Head Start evaluations. Health and mortality analyses tie to work by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

Data Access and Usage

Researchers access PSID data via repositories and archives administered by the Institute for Social Research at University of Michigan and data distribution partners like the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. Restricted geocode and administrative linkages require agreements with agencies such as the Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Social Security Administration. Numerous scholars at Princeton University, Yale University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University use PSID for dissertations, monographs, and articles published by presses including Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.

Criticisms and Limitations

Critiques of PSID raised by academics at University of Chicago, Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University, and Duke University focus on sample attrition, representativeness relative to surveys like the Current Population Survey and American Community Survey, and measurement error compared with administrative records from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. Methodological discussions in journals associated with the American Sociological Review, Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Demography, and Journal of Econometrics debate weighting, imputation, and panel conditioning. Ethical and confidentiality concerns have involved institutional review boards at University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, and Princeton University and data enclaves operated by the National Institutes of Health and ICPSR.

Category:Longitudinal studies