I am trying to calculate the size of workforce and the average education level of MSAs where people work( I use the “pwmetro” item, but if “pwmetro” is missing I use “metarea” MSAs) , but I couldn’t obtain same results with previous paper and current "pwmetro“ MSA categories are also different. The original paper is "Employee quality and financial reporting outcomes, by Call et al 2017) and it used the IPUMS version 5.0 data.I am wondering where I can find the previous versions of IPUMS database? Thank you!
In general, you can request to gain access to the archived versions of IPUMS USA by emailing ipums@umn.edu.
Specifically in regard to changes to PWMETRO, I am not aware of any changes that will influence results when using version 5.0 rather than version 7.0 of IPUMS USA. You can always check the list of revisions and substantial edits to IPUMS USA data by viewing the revisions page.