DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06892.v1
title: Survey of Consumer Finances Panel Survey, 1983-1989
title: Version 1

description: The 1983-1989 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) Panel dataset provides a linked set of panel data from respondents to both the 1983 (ICPSR 9751) and the 1989 (ICPSR 9687) SCF surveys. Data from these surveys were used to construct variables for the panel cases that are comparable to those available directly for the cross-section cases. In addition, this data collection includes panel data not available in the previously released 1983 and 1989 cross-sectional SCF studies. Data from the 1986 SCF (ICPSR 9753) were treated only as a source of limited information for the construction of the cross-sectional variables and are otherwise not included. This dataset is not intended to reproduce the cross-section results from the 1983 or 1989 SCF. Cross-sectional items from 1983 and 1989 in this data collection include the composition of family balance sheets, terms of loans, relationships with financial institutions, pension status of the survey respondent and the spouse or partner of the respondent, economic assets and liabilities of families, attitudes of consumers toward credit use, and their reactions to consumer credit regulations. Demographic variables include age, gender, marital status, housing, and financial independence. Panel survey issues focused on changes in marital status, household composition, and work history, including number of employers in the past 36 months, reason for leaving job, number of months of full-time and part-time work in the past 36 months, and pension plan status for the respondent and the respondent's spouse. Gender, marital status, and age data were also collected for new household members.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: Survey of Consumer Finances Series
description: Not all variables listed in the codebook are available in this public use dataset.
The imputed values in this dataset may differ from those in the 1983 and 1989 SCF datasets.
Weighting adjustments are included for survey nonrespondents. Unanswered questions have been imputed multiple times and the imputations stored as complete replicates of each case. Two analysis weights are included for use with the panel data.
description: Households within the 48 contiguous United States that had responded to the 1983 SCF and whose respondents were age 22 or older in 1983.
description: Sampling was based on the list sample developed for the 1983 SCF using tax records, and a modification of an area-probability sample generated for the 1983 survey. The sample includes all cases that were interviewed in 1989 that had either cross-section and panel representation or only panel representation. A separate panel questionnaire was used, which assumed the availability of information reported earlier on marital and work history. An interviewer was sent to this subsample of 1983 addresses. If the person at that address was a respondent to the 1983 SCF or the spouse or partner of that person, an attempt was made to obtain an interview. If the person living there was a new person, an interview was attempted, and for a subsample the original respondent was also pursued. The new person had only cross-section representation and the 1983 respondent had only panel representation. In general, the sample followed both 1983 respondents and the spouses or partners of 1983 respondents in cases where the original couple had dissolved. A small supplemental sample was added to the panel/cross-section to compensate for new construction. There are 1,479 original observations in the panel dataset, but due to the multiple imputations stored as separate replicates, this collection has 4,437 observations.