By collecting annual economic and demographic information from a large and representative sample of U.S. households for over a quarter century, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics has compiled a remarkably useful set of microdata. This article describes the PSID and how its unique longitudinal...

Economists have devoted increasing attention to the magnitude and consequences of measurement error in their data. Most discussions of measurement error are based on the "classical[equal, rising dots] assumption that errors in measuring a particular variable are uncorrelated with the true value...

Economists have devoted increasing attention to the magnitude and consequences of measurement error in their data. Most discussions of measurement error are based on the “classical” assumption that errors in measuring a particular variable are uncorrelated with the true value of that...

This paper reports evidence on the error properties of survey reports of labor market variables such as earnings and work hours. Our primary data source is the PSID Validation Study, a two-wave panel survey of a sample of workers employed by a large firm which also allowed us access to its very...

A key policy question in evaluating social programs to address childhood poverty is how families receiving unconditional financial support would spend those funds. Economists have limited empirical evidence on this topic in the U.S. We provide causal estimates of financial and time investments...

Workers' reports of employer size are highly correlated with true values; age of business and industry are reported with reasonable reliability. Larger employers offer more fringe benefits and more formalized personnel systems, but are less likely to match outside offers. Established employers...