Errata for 1979-2020 Data Release

NEWEST ERRATA

Corrections to 2018-2020 Income and Poverty status variables

Posted: 10/4/2024

A programming error caused incomplete input data to be used in the calculation of the TNFI and POVSTATUS variables in 2018 and 2020. The variables for respondents who received income from government programs (AFDC, food stamps, unemployment compensation, and/or SSI/SSDI) prior to the date of the last interview were updated to include these values. The corrections in the TNFI_POVSTATUS_update (TXT) will be updated at the next release.

OTHER ERRATA

Corrections in NLSY79 Household Record data

Posted: 10/3/2024

In the NLSY79 Household Record data for 1996 (R17), the 11th and 12th household members incorrectly had codes of -4 (missing) or incorrect values for age and highest grade completed. The age variable for the 12th household member is not in the public release. Users may obtain the corrected variables by downloading hhr1996_11th_12th_members.zip. These corrected variables will be included in the upcoming NLSY79 release.

Missing NLSY79 business investment variables 2020

Posted: 8/8/2024

Variables containing the amount used to establish or acquire businesses reported in the NLSY79 2020 survey (round 29) were inadvertently omitted from the public data release. The affected variables are:

• R84181.00 AMOUNT R USED TO ESTABLISH/ACQUIRE THE BUSINESS JOB #01 (2020)
• R84182.00 AMOUNT R USED TO ESTABLISH/ACQUIRE THE BUSINESS JOB #02 (2020)
• R84183.00 AMOUNT R USED TO ESTABLISH/ACQUIRE THE BUSINESS JOB #03 (2020)
• R84184.00 AMOUNT R USED TO ESTABLISH/ACQUIRE THE BUSINESS JOB #04 (2020)
• R84185.00 AMOUNT R USED TO ESTABLISH/ACQUIRE THE BUSINESS JOB #05 (2020)

These variables will be included in the next public data release, expected in late fall 2024. Until then, data users can download a CSV file with the Business Investment variables.

Corrections in some Employer Id, Created, and Event History variables

Posted: 12/22/23, Updated 05/02/24

NLSY79 staff have identified a problem that affects the employer start and stop months for a small number of cases during the year 2020. These are cases in which the respondent reported an invalid skip [‘don’t know’ or ‘refuse’] for the start or stop month of employment. Users can access corrected values in r29_dkrf_emp_changes_all.xlsx. The corrected values will be updated in the next public release.

NLSY79 vehicle values 1985-1986

Posted: 3/19/2024

Due to differences in the manner in which questions about vehicle values were posed in 1985-1986, and 1987 forward, topcoding of the 1985-1986 variables were not treated consistently with other early asset survey years. The inconsistency has been corrected in the current public data release.

The affected variables are:

• R17923.00 TOTAL AMOUNT OF MONEY R/SPOUSE OWE ON VEHICLES INCLUDING AUTOMOBILES (TRUNC) (1985)
• R17924.00 TOTAL MARKET VALUE OF ALL VEHICLES INCLUDING AUTOMOBILES R/SPOUSE OWN (TRUNC) (1985)
• R21554.00 TOTAL AMOUNT OF MONEY R/SPOUSE OWE ON VEHICLES INCLUDING AUTOMOBILES (TRUNC) (1986)
• R21555.00 TOTAL MARKET VALUE OF ALL VEHICLES INCLUDING AUTOMOBILES R/SPOUSE OWN (TRUNC) (1986)

The affected values have been updated in the current public release. This does not affect the “_REVISED” versions of these variables (R17923.01, R17924.01, R21554.01, R21555.01), which were created in the early 2000s using an updated method of topcoding.

NLSY79 variables missing from Public Release & erroneous value

Posted: 8/8/2023

A small number of NLSY79 variables are erroneously omitted from the current public release data. In addition, an erroneous outlier value is present for NFA_4C_SR000001.01 (T21649.00) in 2008.

The variables missing from the public release are represented in the table below.

In addition, researchers using NFA_4C_SR000001.01 should recode the outlier value of $150,000 to $15,000.

Users can access corrected values in missing_nlsy79_pubvars.xlsx. The erroneous value and missing variables will be updated in the next public release.

Corrections To NLSY79 HOURS_WORKED_WEEK_ALL.## variables

Posted: 6/14/2023

The HOURS_WORKED_WEEK_ALL.## variables for several jobs in NLSY79 survey year 2002 (round 20) do not correctly incorporate hours for a subset of respondents reporting hours worked as teachers.

The affected variables are:

• R77690.00 HOURS_WORKED_WEEK_ALL.01 (2002) (72 cases affected)
• R77691.00 HOURS_WORKED_WEEK_ALL.02 (2002) (13 cases affected)
• R77693.00 HOURS_WORKED_WEEK_ALL.04 (2002) (2 cases affected)

Users can access corrected values in hrs_wrk_wk_all_2002.xlsx. These values will be updated in the next public release.

NLSY79 TNFW_TRUNC 2000-2016 Additional invalid missing values and topcode revisions

Posted: 5/9/2023

A small number of respondents for each of the most recent five NLSY79 rounds containing assets questions (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016) were assigned valid values for TNFW_TRUNC rather than -3/invalid missing values. This affected the assigned topcodes for those variables as well. In addition, the NLS program has conducted a review of income and assets topcoding and standardized these values. Adjustments have been made to a very limited number of values to reflect the current standards.

The affected variables are:

• R69401.03 TNFW_TRUNC (2000)FAMILY NET WEALTH (TRUNC) *KEY*
• R83787.03 TNFW_TRUNC (2004)FAMILY NET WEALTH (TRUNC) *KEY*
• T21427.02 TNFW_TRUNC (2008)FAMILY NET WEALTH (TRUNC) *KEY*
• T40458.02 TNFW_TRUNC (2012)FAMILY NET WEALTH (TRUNC) *KEY*
• T56845.00 TNFW_TRUNC (2016)FAMILY NET WEALTH (TRUNC) *KEY*

The following number of cases are affected for each survey year:

The variables listed above have been updated in the most recent public release.