Experimental Poverty Measures, 2008: Public-Use Dataset Notes These notes are for analysts who use the public-use file that contains alternative poverty estimates for calendar year 2008 and other variables related to poverty measurement. Corresponding data based on the U.S. 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 U.S. Census Bureau's Experimental Poverty Measurement site at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povmeas/datafiles.html : 1. povpu08.sas7bdat 2. povpu08.sas 3. povpu08.lst The SAS dataset, povpu08.sas7bdat, was created using SAS version 9.2 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 variables in the 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 2009 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) public-use file from which the datasets were created. The SAS program povpu08.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. Notes: 1. INCOME VARIABLE AND TOPCODED VARIABLE CAVEATS: It is important to note that many of the poverty rates generated using these 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 povpu08.lst (available on the FTP site) shows two recode variables for official poverty -- poorpub and poor1. Each recode uses different CPS ASEC variables to construct the official poverty measure. The first, poorpub, is a recode of PERLIS, while poor1 was computed by dividing the CPS family income variable by the threshold variable (FTOTVAL / FPOVCUT). The two methods are conceptually identical; however, poorpub produces output consistent with Census Bureau reports while poor1 does not. The PERLIS variable (used to create poorpub) uses topcoded income, and protects respondents' confidentiality by grouping observations into broad categories by their ratio of income to poverty, whereas poor1 uses the complete income variable, FTOTVAL. Therefore, when computing alternative resource definitions--which by necessity use topcoded variables as components--please bear these differences in mind. 2. 2008 INCOME In an effort to expedite the release of alternative income and poverty estimates the March 2009 CPS ASEC Public Use File has been released without estimates for capital gains and capital losses. For this reason poverty estimates for 2008 are not strictly comparable to estimates from previous years. Income definitions which include taxes also include federal stimulus payments. The variable fstimulus,a component of income variables testdef002-testdef009, is the value of federal stimulus payments at the family level. The stimulus variable represents the Federal Stimulus Payment received during tax year 2008. The payment was modeled using 2008 tax information instead of 2007 tax year filing information as required by the IRS because 2007 information was not available from the 2009 CPS ASEC. Payments were assigned to persons with a 2008 tax liability, or with $3,000 in "qualifying income". The full value of the stimulus payment was assigned to the tax filer (only one person for joint returns). For those without a federal tax liability, $300 was assigned to single filers and $600 to joint filers. For persons with a federal tax liability, $600 was assigned to single filers and $1,200 to joint filers. Additional $300 payments for qualifying children were added to the total stimulus payment. 3. GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLE CAVEATS: Three issues with geographic variables warrant the user's attention: a change in sample design in the CPS ASEC public-use file meant that complete information on metropolitan/nonmetropolitan status was not available for every area; a change in geographic concepts prompted a new set of geographic variables; and last, the geographic-adjustment indices for poverty thresholds (geo2)were constructed with estimated metropolitan status information and with appropriate suppression of confidential data. See P60-216, Experimental Poverty Measures: 1999 for further information on the methods used to construct the geographic indices for the poverty thresholds at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p60-216.pdf