Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Tweet[IWS] SSA: Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File, 2004 [October 2005]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File, 2004 [October 2005]
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/microdata/earn/index.html
[scroll to bottom of page to find files]
Content and Sample Design of the Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File
The Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File, 2004, consists of two separate but linkable subfilesone with benefit information and the other with longitudinal earnings information. Sample beneficiary records drawn from the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program can be linked to their corresponding earnings histories.
Information about beneficiaries needed to administer the OASDI program resides on SSA's Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) file, which in December 2004 contained records for approximately 47 million individuals who were entitled to receive a Social Security (OASDI) benefit for that month. Data in the benefit subfile are an extract from the MBR, consisting of a 1 percent random, representative sample of approximately 470,000 records. These records are representative of OASDI beneficiaries who were entitled to receive an OASDI benefit payment for December 2004. Each record in the benefit and earnings subfiles has a unique identifier that allows each earnings record to be linked to its appropriate benefit record. Both subfiles are available as flat text files or SAS data sets.
Since the sample for this public-use file is a representative, 1 percent random sample of persons entitled to receive an OASDI benefit payment for December 2004, all records have weight equal to 100. Variances and standard errors can be approximated with the standard formulas used for simple random sampling.
Descriptions of data fields are provided in the Data Dictionary for this file. The descriptions cover the content of each field, the method of presentation, and the disclosure avoidance steps taken to provide confidentiality. Because information on the internal MBR file is used to administer the OASDI program, these data are validated and kept current. As a result, the quality of the data in this public-use file is extremely high. Note that benefits payable for December 2004 are computed using earnings through the year 2003.
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File, 2004 [October 2005]
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/microdata/earn/index.html
[scroll to bottom of page to find files]
Content and Sample Design of the Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File
The Benefits and Earnings Public-Use File, 2004, consists of two separate but linkable subfilesone with benefit information and the other with longitudinal earnings information. Sample beneficiary records drawn from the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program can be linked to their corresponding earnings histories.
Information about beneficiaries needed to administer the OASDI program resides on SSA's Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) file, which in December 2004 contained records for approximately 47 million individuals who were entitled to receive a Social Security (OASDI) benefit for that month. Data in the benefit subfile are an extract from the MBR, consisting of a 1 percent random, representative sample of approximately 470,000 records. These records are representative of OASDI beneficiaries who were entitled to receive an OASDI benefit payment for December 2004. Each record in the benefit and earnings subfiles has a unique identifier that allows each earnings record to be linked to its appropriate benefit record. Both subfiles are available as flat text files or SAS data sets.
Since the sample for this public-use file is a representative, 1 percent random sample of persons entitled to receive an OASDI benefit payment for December 2004, all records have weight equal to 100. Variances and standard errors can be approximated with the standard formulas used for simple random sampling.
Descriptions of data fields are provided in the Data Dictionary for this file. The descriptions cover the content of each field, the method of presentation, and the disclosure avoidance steps taken to provide confidentiality. Because information on the internal MBR file is used to administer the OASDI program, these data are validated and kept current. As a result, the quality of the data in this public-use file is extremely high. Note that benefits payable for December 2004 are computed using earnings through the year 2003.
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 10:50 AM
