I wish to acquire the Quality indicators for all the income fields that sum to individual or household income. Are these listed somewhere? Or is there a way to search for them? Where should I look for the accounting identities for these totals, including all the subsidiary variables that sum to the subtotals that sum to total individual or household income? Does IPUMS check that the lowest-level income variables sum to the subtotals and totals? If so, does IPUMS discuss or describe failures to sum correctly? How do you deal with rounding error
There is an option to add data quality flags to variables in your data cart when you request your extract. This forum post explains how to use this tool. These flag variables report if, and the method by which, the Census Bureau allocated the variable for the respondent during processing, either due to missing data, illogical values, or to top coding. The first two types of allocations are typically reported in the allocation data quality flags (e.g. QINCLONG for INCLONGJ), while the latter is reported in a separate top code flag (e.g. TINCLONGJ). Top coding occurs when a value is high enough to meet a threshold to be censored and assigned the corresponding top code (see this page for detailed top code documentation).
The data quality flag variables can also be found and added manually for each variable by referring to the variable’s flags tab (e.g. flags tab for INCLONGJ). Finally, there is a search tool that you can use to search for and quickly add multiple data quality flag variables to your cart. The easiest way to do so is by entering the term “Data quality flag for” or “Topcode flag for”, followed by the variable that you are interested in. For example, searching for "Data quality flag for INCWAGE’’ will give you a link to QINCWAGE.
Note that data quality flags are not always available and their availability depends on what is released by the Census Bureau in the public use file. For example, QINCWAGE has not been released since 1987.
Accounting identities for summed income variables are typically described in the comparability tabs (e.g. INCTOT, INCRETIR). While IPUMS CPS provides documentation and harmonizes CPS variables, we release the data as it is shared by the Census Bureau and do not validate or correct income subtotals and totals. When we do find systematic complications in the data, we note them in the documentation tabs for specific variables.