Experimental Poverty Measures, 2006: Public-Use Dataset Notes ***** This file was re-released in October 2008 to correct an error in the assignment of metropolitan area status that affected 16 variables on the research data file. At the bottom of this readme.txt document are the comparison statistics for the affected variables. ***** These notes are for analysts who use the public-use file that contains alternative poverty estimates for calendar year 2006 and other variables related to poverty measurement. Corresponding data based on the Census Bureau's internal datafiles may be found at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povmeas/tables.html. The estimates included in these files are an update of the estimates in the report P60-227 (Alternative Poverty Estimates in the United States: 2003 -- available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/altpovest/altpovestrpt.html) that were based on recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel. Three files are available from the Census Bureau's poverty measurement 2006 dataset FTP site: 1. povpu06.sas7bdat 2. povpu06.sas 3. povpu06.lst The SAS dataset, povpu06.sas7bdat, was created using SAS version 9.1 on a UNIX platform. Contained in the SAS dataset are variables used to construct these experimental poverty measures. For details about the construction of the measures and their component elements, please refer to the P60-227 report (referenced above) and to P60-205, Experimental Poverty Measures: 1990 to 1997 (available at http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p60-205.pdf), especially Appendix C. All research variables in this public-use SAS dataset have variable labels, and, where appropriate, value labels. Household, family, and person-level ID variables are also contained in the dataset to allow analysts to re-merge the file with the 2007 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) public-use file from which the datasets were created. The SAS program povpu06.sas reads in the SAS dataset, and, for illustrative purposes, also displays the final SAS data steps used to create the experimental poverty measures already contained in the dataset. (The recodes testpoor1 - testpoor13, created within the program, replicate poor1 - poor13 which are already on the file.) These steps are shown to help analysts replicate the experimental poverty measures and to provide guidance for those who wish to appropriately recombine various elements (i.e., thresholds and income definitions) to view alternative poverty measures. INCOME VARIABLE AND TOPCODED VARIABLE CAVEATS: It is important to note that many of the poverty rates generated using these research public-use SAS datasets differ slightly from those shown in Census Bureau publications. These differences occur because some public-use variables (such as the variables for total income, income by source, and taxes) are topcoded to protect respondents' confidentiality. To illustrate, the SAS output file povpu06.lst (available on the FTP site) shows a recode variable for official poverty -- poor1. This recode was computed by dividing the public- use family income variable by the threshold variable (FTOTVAL / FPOVCUT). The full CPS ASEC public use file contains a variable called PERLIS, which is a recode of the same ratio using un-topcoded data. PERLIS protects respondents' confidentiality by grouping them into broad categories. While the two are conceptually identical, PERLIS produces output completely consistent with Census Bureau reports while poor1 may not. Therefore, when computing alternative resource definitions--which by necessity use topcoded variables as components--please bear these differences in mind. GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLE CAVEATS: The geographic-adjustment indices for poverty thresholds (geo2) were constructed with estimated metropolitan status information as available in GTCBSAST and with appropriate suppression of confidential data. See P60-216, Experimental Poverty Measures: 1999, available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p60-216.pdf, for further information on the methodsused to construct the geographic indices for the poverty thresholds. In light of the caveats listed above, the file povpu06.lst shows unweighted counts of the number of people in poverty under each definition, and their corresponding percentages. Users can check their output using these unweighted numbers. *********************************************************************************** COMPARISON OF VARIABLES AFFECTED BY METROPOLITAN AREA STATUS IDENTIFICATION ERROR OCTOBER 2008 *********************************************************************************** Variables with Unequal Values Mean Mean Variable Label Ndif Base Compare Mean Mean combexpc Combined work expenses (child care and other expenses) 4828 2181 2192 geo2 geographic adjustment to threshold 206322 0.9973 0.9972 fmrcap Capped housing subsidy based FMR 6306 176.0208 176.7513 fmrcapce Capped housing subsidy based on CE thresholds 6287 180.7212 181.5121 poor2 msi-cpi 892 poor3 msi-cpi-nga 137 poor4 msi-CE 1040 poor11 msi-CE-NGA 192 poor5 mit-cpi 1065 poor6 mit-cpi-nga 146 poor7 mit-CE 1226 poor12 mit-CE-NGA 154 poor8 cmb-cpi 958 poor9 cmb-cpi-nga 128 poor10 cmb-CE 1182 poor13 cmb-CE-NGA 158 _____________________________________________________ Revised public |Original public | use data |use data |Published Tables _____________________________________________________ Freq Percent |Freq Percent |Freq Percent | | poor2, msi-cpi 36,359 12.26 |36,503 12.31 |36,308 12.2 poor3, msi-cpi-nga 36,799 12.41 |36,763 12.40 |36,742 12.4 poor4, msi-CE 40,336 13.61 |40,442 13.64 |40,274 13.6 poor5, mit-cpi 37,517 12.66 |37,582 12.68 |37,479 12.6 poor6, mit-cpi-nga 37,923 12.79 |37,965 12.81 |37,880 12.8 poor7, mit-CE 41,880 14.13 |41,910 14.14 |41,814 14.1 poor8, cmb-cpi 38,282 12.91 |38,402 12.95 |38,233 12.9 poor9, cmb-cpi-nga 38,548 13.00 |38,547 13.00 |38,495 13.0 poor10, cmb-CE 41,617 14.04 |41,667 14.06 |41,551 14.0 poor11, msi-CE-NGA 40,700 13.73 |40,659 13.72 |40,644 13.7 poor12, mit-CE-NGA 42,172 14.23 |42,189 14.23 |42,123 14.2 poor13, cmb-CE-NGA 41,882 14.13 |41,838 14.11 |41,824 14.1