DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09568.v1
title: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) [1988 Panel]
title: Version 1

description: This data collection is part of a longitudinal survey designed to provide detailed information on the economic situation of households and persons in the United States. These data examine the distribution of income, wealth, and poverty in American society and gauge the effects of federal and state programs on the well-being of families and individuals. There are three basic elements contained in the survey. The first is a control card that records basic social and demographic characteristics for each person in a household, as well as changes in such characteristics over the course of the interviewing period. The second element is the core portion of the questionnaire, with questions repeated at each interview on labor force activity, types and amounts of income, participation in various cash and noncash benefit programs, attendance in postsecondary schools, private health insurance coverage, public or subsidized rental housing, low-income energy assistance, and school breakfast and lunch participation. The third element consists of topical modules, which are a series of supplemental questions asked during selected household visits. A topical module was not created for the first wave of the 1988 panel. The Wave II Topical Module (Part 3) concerns fertility history. Women were asked the number of children they had and the number they expected to have in the future. They were also asked about their employment status prior to and after their first pregnancies. The Wave III (Part 5) and Wave VI Topical Modules (Part 11) include data on work schedules, child care, child support agreements, support for nonhousehold members, long-term care, disability status of children, and health status and utilization of health care services. The Topical Module for Wave IV (Part 7) contains questions on assets and liabilities, such as savings accounts, stocks, IRA accounts, loans, and credit cards. The Wave V Topical Module (Part 9) covers educational financing and enrollment for persons over the age of 15. Part 15, the Full Panel Research Data File, has not been edited nor imputed although it has been topcoded or bottomcoded and recoded if necessary by the Census Bureau, to avoid disclosure of individual respondents.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Wave I Rectangular Data 
 DS2: Data Dictionary for Wave I Rectangular File 
 DS3: Wave II Rectangular Core and Topical Module Data 
 DS4: Data Dictionary for Wave II Rectangular Core and Topical Module File 
 DS5: Wave III Rectangular Core and Topical Module Data 
 DS6: Data Dictionary for Wave III Rectangular Core and Topical Module File 
 DS7: Wave IV Rectangular Core and Topical Module Data 
 DS8: Data Dictionary for Wave IV Rectangular Core and Topical Module File 
 DS9: Wave V Rectangular Core and Topical Module Data 
 DS10: Data Dictionary for Wave V Rectangular Core and Topical Module File 
 DS11: Wave VI Rectangular Core and Topical Module Data 
 DS12: Data Dictionary for Wave VI Rectangular Core and Topical Module File 
 DS13: User Notes 
 DS14: User Guide 
 DS15: Full Panel Research Data File
description: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Series
description: The codebooks are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF) files and the data dictionaries are provided as ASCII text files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
description: Resident population of the United States, excluding persons living in institutions and military barracks.
description: A multistage stratified sampling design was used. The 1988 Panel consisted of approximately 17,500 households. One-fourth of these households were interviewed each month, and households were reinterviewed at four-month intervals. All persons at least 15 years old who were present as household members at the time of the first interview were included for the entire study, except those who joined the military, were institutionalized for the entire study period, or moved from the United States. Original household members who moved during the study period were followed to their new residences and interviewed there. New persons moving into households of members of the original sample also were included in the survey, but were not followed if they left the household of an original sample person.