Earnwt = 0 for 15-year-olds in the earner study

CPS
1

I extracted the 12 months of the 2018 monthly CPS with earner study variables and some others.

After restricting to eligorg == 1, I have 239 15-year-olds.

BUT, earnwt = 0 for all of them. earnwt is non-zero for everyone else in the eligorg subset.

paidhour, hourwage, and other earner study variables are non-zero for these 15-year-olds.

So why is earnwt = 0?

2

The IPUMS CPS Team is looking into the specific cause of this observation. Our suspicion is this is related to incomplete documentation related to the universe of the EARNWT variable, but we are not certain about this detail yet. I will follow up with more information in about a week or so.

3

Thank you.

4

I have a brief update from the IPUMS CPS Team. There seems to be a discrepancy between the actual data and the documentation. Up to and including 1997, earnwt includes those 15 years old and older for all basic monthly samples as well as ASEC samples. After 1997, earnwt becomes 16 years of age and older in the basic monthly samples, but remains 15 and older in the ASEC samples. We will update universe statements and variable descriptions to reflect these universe changes.