Hi, I suspect the Stata extraction code for earnings is incorrect. I get the following means for weekly and hourly earnings:
. su earnweek*
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
earnweek | 201,151 45394.9 49308.98 0 99999.99
earnweek_c~8 | 201,151 46023.38 49374.31 0 99999.99
. su hou*
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
hourwage | 201,151 696.5316 454.4572 0 999.99
hourwage_c~8 | 201,151 705.7871 450.5602 0 999.99
I think the divisors in the generated code below should be much larger, e.g. 10000 for weekly earnings rather than 100. Or if they're correct, pl tell me how to get these jobs :). Thanks much, S
===========
clear
quietly infix ///
long year 1-5 ///
double caseid 6-19 ///
byte pernum 20-21 ///
int lineno 22-24 ///
double wt06 25-41 ///
byte fullpart 42-43 ///
int uhrsworkt 44-47 ///
double earnweek 48-54 ///
byte paidhour 55-56 ///
byte earnrpt 57-58 ///
double hourwage 59-63 ///
byte cpsupdate 64-65 ///
byte fullpart_cps8 66-67 ///
int uhrsworkt_cps8 68-71 ///
int hrsworkt_cps8 72-75 ///
double earnweek_cps8 76-82 ///
double hourwage_cps8 83-87 ///
using `"atus_00009.dat"'
replace earnweek = earnweek / 100
replace hourwage = hourwage / 100
replace earnweek_cps8 = earnweek_cps8 / 100
replace hourwage_cps8 = hourwage_cps8 / 100
format caseid %14.0g
format wt06 %17.0g
format earnweek %7.2f
format hourwage %5.2f
format earnweek_cps8 %7.2f
format hourwage_cps8 %5.2f
It looks like these summary statistics are being calculated including the special codes for Not in Universe (e.g., NIU ==99999.99). This is pulling the means upwards quite a bit. NIU cases indicate that the respondent is not eligible for the earnings question. Therefore, they should be excluded from your analysis. Once you exclude these cases your means should be much more reasonable.
Hmmm, is there a var to identify the NIU cases, or some other documentation of those values? thanks much, Sanjiv