I heard that CPS ORG data starts from 1979
But when I check the hourly wage data in the outgoing rotation group of IPUMS CPS,
the variable starts from 1989 in yearly data, not monthly
May I know the reason that the hourly wage variable starts in 1989 in IPUMS CPS?
If I want to use the IPUMS CPS data (1989 - 2018) with the NBER CPS ORG (1979 - 1988) to increase the duration, Is there anything I should be aware of?
While hourly wage data is available prior to 1989, the Census Bureau reports that the results in the CPS public use files for this data series included errors for years prior, as such, they are excluded from IPUMS CPS (this is noted on the comparability tab of HOURWAGE).
As for merging data between IPUMS CPS and NBER, we actually have a blog post that contains information about linking the two, however, it is more informative for linking IPUMS CPS data to NBER basic monthly and ASEC data files. Supporting the linking of IPUMS CPS data to NBER MORG data files is part of an ongoing project aiming to allow for full comparability and linking of the outgoing rotation groups all the way back to 1979, however it is still underway so we don’t have much additional information.