SIPP and SPD Documentation and Extraction Utilities

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SlPP) contains unique longitudinal micro data on source and amount of income, usage of health care and other social services, and general demographic characteristics of a representative sample of the United States population. The related Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD) provides additional data for welfare reform analysis. As currently formatted and documented, these surveys present significant barriers to potential researchers. This project will provide improved access to these data, by providing convenient search and extraction software and an efficient graphical user interface, by researching and reformatting the documentation to consolidate all information relating to individual variables in one place, and by providing software to facilitate longitudinal analysis. The product will be distributed on CD-ROM and via the Internet, and run on PCs under Windows. In this project, in consultation with the Census Bureau, current and potential SIPP users, and a highly qualified consultant, SIPP Utilities and SPD Utilities will be designed and released, building on Unicon's long-established CPS Utilities. To enable researchers to utilize these tools as soon as possible, preliminary releases will take place early in this project, embodying data from recent SlPP panels and SPD surveys. The final release will contain complete data.