CPS ASEC Income Redesign Field Test

• Activity Number: 74
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 4, 2013 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jessica Semega*+
• Companies: Census Bureau
• Keywords: CPS ASEC ; income ; Redesign

Abstract

The Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (the CPS ASEC) is one of the most widely used economic surveys publishing national level medians and means. The CPS ASEC is the official source of the US national poverty statistics. The ASEC asks each person detailed questions categorizing income into over 50 sources. As one of the nations' longest running surveys, it has been over 30 year since the last major redesign. In an effort to take better advantage of an automated environment and to update questions on retirement income and health insurance, the Census Bureau is conducting a field test in March 2013 of a redesigned instrument using a retired ASEC sample of 23,000 households. This paper will look into the outcomes of the field test and the specifics of the redesigned portion of the ASEC instrument, including the use of income brackets for respondent question refusals to income amounts (currently the instrument will move on to the next source of income) and a new "dual pass" approach that asks all income sources first, followed by income amount collection.