CPS - How to know whether a Type-A noninterview (HHINTYPE) is a refusal or a noncontact?

CPS
1

This is a follow-up to my previous question:


The CPS has information about nonresponses, including whether the reason is refusal or noncontact (e.g. "not at home" or "temporarily absent"), as exemplified by this page:

[https://www.census.gov/programs-surve...](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/technical-documentation/methodology/non-response-rates.html)

Where can I find these variables in the IPUMS CPS?

link to question: CPS - How to identify nonresponses and distinguish between refusal v. noncontact?

The answer provided by Jeff Bloem was helpful – it taught me that hhintype is only useful in the hierarchical format. Thanks! However, it didn’t quite answer my question. HHINTYPE (in the hierarchical format) has three values: “Interview”, “Type A non-interview”, and “Type B/C non-interview”. This isn’t enough to tell me who refused and who wasn’t home. According to the CPS documentation, “[Type A households] are not interviewed because the household members refuse, are absent during the interviewing period, or unavailable for other reasons.”

source: Collecting Data

So what I’m looking for would break down Type A households into “refusals” and “not at home”. I know the CPS contains this data based on the link at the top of this question. Maybe it’s just not in the IPUMS version? Any leads are appreciated. Thanks again, Wayne.

2

Although this information is available in CPS public use data (noted as Type A non-interview reason), IPUMS CPS does not currently provide access to this variable. Something we are currently working on is making all CPS source variables available via IPUMS CPS, at the moment IPUMS CPS really only provides variables that need specific harmonization or are commonly used variables. So, we hope to provide access to this variable, but it is not currently available.

In the meantime, you can find all of the raw CPS public use files on the NBER website (the specific variable you are interested in named “hutypea”). You can merge NBER CPS files with IPUMS CPS files using the documentation available here.