Hello,
I’m using SPM weights to calculate some statistics about child care expenditures from the CPS ASEC.
I see household and person replicate weights in the ASEC to use for standard errors, but I’m wondering if I should use them given that I’m using SPMWT and not ASECWT to calculate the estimates themselves.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Katie
Most poverty measures are reported on the individual level (e.g., percent of people in poverty). SPMWT is provided to weight observations for family-level analyses (e.g., percent of families receiving foodstamps) where the data is restricted to one individual per SPM family unit (SPMFAMUNIT). There are no replicate weights provided for family-level analyses and I was unable to find any specific guidance on whether person replicate weights or household replicate weights can be used in this case.
In some contexts (such as described in the American Community Survey Design and Methodology Report) where family weights are not available, the Census Bureau will produce family-level estimates using household weights. It may therefore be possible to use household replicate weights (REPWT) for family-level variance calculations with SPMWT. To do this in Stata, you will first want to create a variable that identifies one member of each SPM unit and then use the subpop option for your analysis: svy, subpop(if "your_SPM_identifier" == 1): command. See the replicate weight user guide for more information and code for running this analysis in other statistics packages. I am not aware of anyone who is running this type of analysis, so for further clarification I recommend reaching out to an expert at the Census Bureau.