Hi, I am using the ACS person level data. If a person has imputed income, and is the only person is the household, why would the family income and the hhincome not be also imputed?
If a person’s person level income is imputed then is the household or family level income missing?
Thank you so much for your help on this! Have a great day!
sum inctot ftotinc hhincome qftotinc qhhincome if qinctot==4 & numprec==1
Variable | Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max
-------------±--------------------------------------------------------
inctot | 1,246,825 30743.96 49218.77 -10000 1371100
ftotinc | 1,246,825 4312807 4926812 -9500 9999999
hhincome | 1,246,825 4312807 4926812 -9500 9999999
qftotinc | 1,246,825 0 0 0 0
qhhincome | 1,246,825 2.285174 1.979565 0 4
The flags QINCTOT and QHHINCOME have two different codes in the ACS:
0 = “Original entry or inapplicable (not in universe)”
4=“Allocated”
An observation is not in universe for a particular variable when there is no data recorded for it. For example, the ACS does not ask for the income of children under the age of 15. Instead, all of these records are assigned the not in universe value (9999999 for INCTOT). The definitions for each variable universe can be found in the universe tab (see INCTOT and HHINCOME).
The discrepancy you’re seeing is due to the differences in universes between these variables. While INCTOT is provided for all people ages 15+, HHINCOME is not provided for households that are classified as “group quarters” (e.g., correctional institutions, assisted living centers for the elderly, military bases, religious convents, etc.). An individual residing in group quarters (GQ = 3 or 4) may have personal income, but they will never have household income since they are not in the universe for this variable. As a result, HHINCOME = 9999999 and QHHINCOME = 0, “Original entry or inapplicable (not in universe)” for all respondents in group quarters.
FTOTINC is constructed by IPUMS; it sums the INCTOT values of all family members as defined by FAMUNIT (see CBSUBFAM for the Census subfamily definition). Unfortunately, the association of FTOTINC with the data quality flag QFTOTINC is incorrect; QFTOTINC is directly reported by the Census Bureau for their measure of family income (with the variable mnemonic FINCP in recent years). The IPUMS variable FTOTINC does not use FINCP, so it is misleading to interpret the QFTOTINC variable alongside FTOTINC. I have made a note to remove this association. Despite this error, I can share some information that may be helpful for your immediate consideration. It appears straightforward enough to me that you can consider respondents with QINCTOT = 4 who reside in singleton households that are not group quarters as having edited FTOTINC values (QFTOTINC = 4).