Cyclical, Intergenerational and Life Course Measures of Economic and Social Behavior: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), 2002-2006

收入动态小组研究(PSID)是自1968年以来对具有代表性的美国个人及其居住的家庭单位的样本进行的纵向研究。这项研究的长期跨度、创新的谱系设计和全面的内容对于从根本上理解各种关键的社会科学问题至关重要，包括那些涉及生命过程影响的问题。PSID拥有30多年的相同家庭数据，理所当然地可以被视为支持基于经验的社会科学研究的基础设施的基石。通过其对经济和社会福祉的长期衡量，并基于其具有代表性的美国家庭样本，这项研究迫使研究人员和政策制定者直面并学习经济过程中固有的活力。几十年来关于同一家庭的数据的巨大有用性使PSID成为世界上使用最广泛的社会科学数据集之一。该项目目前每年通过其互联网数据中心向研究人员提供6500个定制数据集。自1968年以来，已有2000多篇期刊论文、书籍和章节、学位论文等作品是基于PSID数据的。这项研究被命名为国家科学基金会最著名的50项研究成果之一。1997-2001年的资助周期代表着PSID的一个重要过渡期，在这一过渡期中，该项目实施了几项重要的变化。为了回应对样本数量急剧增长、代表性保持和联邦一级财政限制的担忧，该项目增加了1968年后移民的更新样本，并暂停了人口普查局最初对低收入家庭进行的过度抽样。最重要的是，这项研究改为两年一次的数据收集时间表，随后对仪器进行了修改，以便收集有关关键变量的波间信息。所有这些变化使这项研究恢复到“稳定状态”，即保持样本规模大致相同，获得包括新参与者在内的全国代表性，并证明运行成本更低--同时保持该研究传统上的高数据质量。此外，为了促进更多地利用数据集，扩大了六个主要领域的内容(代际研究；储蓄和消费；技术和资本形成；健康和老龄化；儿童发展；以及移民)。在2002-2006年供资周期中，社会和发展司稳定并保持了这项研究的新状态。与1997年前相比，这项研究的访谈周期现在更长，其内容也大大扩展。该项目的重点是改进受周期较长影响地区的措施，评估新增加的内容领域的研究价值，并改进收集的数据的处理和交付。具体而言，该项目：1.扩展内容，以便于调查当前的研究问题和政策问题；2.继续1997-2001年周期的数据收集设计变化，包括两年一次的面谈，以及相关的费用减少和生产率提高；3.将事件历史日历方法纳入计算机辅助电话面谈应用程序，以确保数据质量，尽管面谈间隔时间较长；4.维护和改进几个新的数据编辑、处理和记录系统；5.通过根据收入和工资项目重新设计CATI数据收集工具，确保这项研究成为收入信息的“黄金标准”；6.通过加强PSID网站数据中心，改进和加快数据交付。更新使PSID能够完善和评估更广泛内容领域的研究价值，并通过改进数据收集和处理进一步便利研究数据的使用。这些努力有力地加强了这项研究的基础设施价值，因为它涉及的主题范围可以通过数据加以解决，而且便于越来越多的社会科学学者使用。

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is a longitudinal study since 1968 of a representative sample of U.S. individuals and the family units in which they reside. The study's long-term span, innovative genealogical design, and comprehensive content have been critical to the fundamental understanding of a wide variety of key social science issues, including those involving life course effects. With thirty-plus years of data on the same families, the PSID can justly be considered a cornerstone of the infrastructure support for empirically based social science research. Through its long-term measures of economic and social well being, and based on its representative sample of U.S. families, the study has compelled both researchers and policy makers to confront and learn from the dynamism inherent in economic processes.The enormous usefulness of decades of data on the same families has made the PSID one of the most widely used social science data sets in the world. The project currently delivers 6,500 customized data sets a year to researchers via its Internet Data Center. Since 1968, over 2,000 journal articles, books and chapters, dissertations and other works have been based on PSID data. And the study has been named one of the National Science Foundation's `Nifty Fifty' most notable research efforts.The 1997-2001 funding cycle represented a major transition period for the PSID, in which the project implemented several important changes. In response to concern about dramatic growth in sample size, maintenance of representativeness, and fiscal constraints at the federal level, the project added a refresher sample of post-1968 immigrants and suspended a number of families from the original Census Bureau oversample of low-income families. Most importantly, the study moved to a bi-ennial data collection schedule, with consequent changes to the instrument in order to collect interwave information on key variables. All of these changes returned the study to a "steady state" that maintains a sample of about the same size, attains national representation inclusive of new entrants, and has proved less costly to run-while maintaining the study's traditionally high data quality. In addition, to facilitate greater use of the data set, content was expanded in six major areas (intergenerational studies; savings and consumption; technology and capital formation; health and aging; child development; and immigration).In the 2002-2006 funding cycle, the PSID stabilizes and maintains this new state of the study. In contrast to the pre-1997 state, the study's interview periodicity is now longer and its content is greatly expanded. The project focuses on improving the measures in areas affected by the longer periodicity, assessing the research value of the newly added content domains, and improving the processing and delivery of the data that is collected. Specifically, the project:1. Expands content to facilitate investigation of current research questions and policy issues;2. Continues the 1997-2001 cycle's data collection design changes, including biennial interviewing, with the associated cost reductions and productivity increases;3. Integrates event history calendar methodology into the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) application to ensure data quality despite the greater time between interviews;4. Maintains and improves several new systems for data editing, processing, and documentation;5. Ensures that the study is the "Gold Standard" for income information through redesign of the CATI data collection instrument based on an Income and Wages Project; and6. Improves and expedite data delivery through enhancements of the PSID web site Data Center.The renewal permits the PSID to perfect and assess the research value of the wider content areas and further facilitate usage of the study's data through improved data collection and processing. These efforts strongly reinforce the infrastructure value of the study in terms of the range of topics that can be addressed with the data and the ease of use for an ever-broadening range of social science scholars.