Panel of Current and Usable Form 5500 Data

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目通过提供一个清晰，用户友好的面板数据库，从1984-2005年期间的表格5500中提供详细的雇主特定养老金数据，解决了当前退休收入研究的数据需求之一。这个项目有两个基本任务。首先，它将把来自劳工部（DOL）的原始数据转换为研究界可用的面板数据库。要做到这一点，原始数据将被清理；字典文件和密码本将被创建；将统一变量名称，以便在所有可用年份保持一致性；每年的数据将被合并成一个纵向数据集。所得数据将包含根据传统DOL假设调整的养老金参与措施。该项目的第二项任务是通过万维网向研究人员提供结果数据，并及时提供汇总养老金信息。为了做到这一点，这个项目将使用波士顿学院退休研究中心目前的互联网基础设施。数据和文件将免费提供给研究人员。该项目还将编制数据汇总表，至少在三年的时间内使正式的DOL发布更加及时。由此产生的数据集将使研究人员能够立即获得公司层面的数据，这些数据将帮助他们解决退休研究领域以前未解决的问题，例如了解对老年工人的潜在需求；公司提供养老金的原因；养老保险覆盖面和参与率的测算；养老金如何影响公司的估值；提供保险的最具成本效益的方式；为什么雇主用自己的股票来补偿员工；为什么不同的行业提供不同类型的养老金计划。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project addresses one of the current data needs of retirement income research by providing a clean, user friendly panel database of detailed employer-specific pension data from the Forms 5500 for the period 1984-2005. This project has two fundamental tasks. First, it will transform the raw data from the Department of Labor (DOL) into usable panel database for the research community. To do this, the raw data will be cleaned; dictionary files and codebooks will be created; the variable names will be harmonized to maintain consistency across all available years; and each year of data will be merged to create a longitudinal dataset. The resulting data will contain adjusted measures of pension participation following traditional DOL assumptions. The second task of this project is to make the resulting data available to researchers via the World Wide Web, and provide aggregate pension information on a timely basis. To do this, this project will use the current internet infrastructure of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The data and documentation will be freely available to researchers. This project will also produce aggregate tabulations of the data that will improve the timeliness of the official DOL releases by at least three years. The resulting dataset will give researchers immediate access to firm-level data that will help them address previously unanswered questions in the retirement research field, such as understanding the potential demand for older workers; the reasons why firms offer pensions; the measurement of pension coverage and participation; how pensions affect the firm's valuation; the most cost-effective manner of providing coverage; why employers use their own stock to compensate their employees; and why different industries offer different types of pension plans.