Hello, is it possible to link the Basic Monthly (March) sample to the March ASEC sample from 1984 to 1989? I am interested in using both the FTOTVAL variable and the UNION variable and they are not in the same extract.
Unfortunately, IPUMS does not currently provide the easy ability to link March basic monthly samples to the ASEC samples prior to 1989. However, you can extend the MARBASECIDP variable for years prior to 1989 based on the documentation found in this working paper. Based on previous work on this task, we know that you will need to prune the ASEC samples for duplicates prior to merging across years and that you will probably need to include AGE, SEX, and RACE as linking keys.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your response. I’m not sure what you mean by pruning the ASEC samples for duplicates? Do you mean dropping the oversampled households? It appears that the ASEC oversample identifier is available only from 1989. Is there another variable that could be used to identify the oversample observations? Thanks so much.
Unfortunately, there is no variable that we are aware of that cleanly identifies the duplicate observations. Indeed this complication is part of the reason why releasing the MARBASECID variable for pre-1989 samples is yet to be completed. Basically, you’ll need to eliminate the duplicates and use demographic variables to ensure the records are being correctly matched. The attached article by Madrigan and Lefgren will probably be a helpful resources.
madrigan_lefgren_200.pdf (129.4 KB)