Topcodes in Earnings Variables

I was wondering if some of the topcodes in incfarm and incbus are not correctly documented or if I am looking at wrong tables? I am comparing observed earned income in CPS ASEC 1980-2015 with reported topcodes in these tables. Attached is a table that shows the maximum observed values in the data and the corresponding topcodes reported in the tables.
topcodes.pdf (15.8 KB)

I believe the issue is that you are comparing the wrong variables in the data to the tables. For example, for 1997 the highest value for OINCFARM should be 38,781 according to the topcodes tables page. In your document, you presented the highest value of INCFARM. INCFARM and OINCFARM are separate variables (with OINCFARM being a component of INCFARM), see the variable description page for OINCFARM for more details. In fact, I just checked the data, and the highest value of OINCFARM in that year is 38,781 (agreeing with the tables page), while the highest value of INCFARM is 318,982 (agreeing with your document).

Similarly, INCLONGJ is a component of INCWAGE, and OINCBUS is a component of INCBUS.

Yes you are right. I thought that oincfarm is the biggest component of incfarm and the topcode for incfarm cannot be bigger than oincfarm as it is for incwage and inclongj. Is the a table that shows actual topcodes for incwage, incfarm, and incbus for 1988+?

The topcodes for INCWAGE, INCFARM and INCBUS are not included in the tables, because they are calculated by summing other income components and are not independently top-coded. The effective topcodes of these variables are the sum of the topcodes of their components.

1 Like

I am comparing observed earned income in CPS ASEC 1980-2015 with reported topcodes in these tables. Attached is 192.168 l 8.1 a table that shows the maximum … These values act as an implied topcode and are detailed in the table below. Cells where the maximum allowable … Topcodes in Income Variables , 1962-1987 …