Comparing Nonresponses in SIPP and SIPP-EHC Data: Participation in Government Social Safety Net Programs

• Activity Number: 697
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 8, 2013 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jeongsoo Kim*+
• Companies: US Census Bureau
• Keywords: Survey instrument ; SIPP ; SIPP-EHC ; TANF ; SNAP

Abstract

The Survey of Income and Program Participation(SIPP)is a nationally representative longitudinal household survey. In order to improve data collection and to reduce costs, the 2006 redesign initiative devised SIPP-EHC(Event History Calendar),of which one feature is to conduct a survey once a year as opposed to every four months. This paper tests whether the type of survey instrument affects item nonresponse rates of the variables that measure participation in the major government social safety net programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid. Data for this study are SIPP-EHC 2011 data and SIPP 2008 panel data with corresponding reference period, covering the period of January through December 2010. The preliminary analysis results from logistic regression show mixed finding: the SIPP-EHC instrument reduced the percent of item nonresponses of Federal SSI, while it increased that of TANF.