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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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STUDIES OF WELFARE POPULATIONS

Data Collection and Research Issues

Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs

Michele Ver Ploeg, Robert A.Moffitt, and Constance F.Citro, Editors

Committee on National Statistics

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, DC

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20418

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by Contract No. HHS-100-98-0011 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Support of the work of the Committee on National Statistics is provided by a consortium of federal agencies through a grant from the National Science Foundation (Number SBR-9709489). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Studies of welfare populations: data collection and research issues: Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs/Michele Ver Ploeg, Robert A.Moffitt, and Constance F.Citro, editors; Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-309-07623-4 (pbk.)

1. Public welfare—Statistical methods. 2. Social surveys. 3. Public welfare—Research—Methodology. I. Ver Ploeg, Michele. II. Moffitt, Robert A. III. Citro, Constance F. (Constance Forbes), 1942- IV. Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs (U.S.)

HV29 .S78 2002

362.5'8'072—dc21

2001005893

Additional copies of this report are available from the
National Academy Press,
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624–6242 or (202) 334–3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Suggested citation: Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues (2002). Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs, Michele Ver Ploeg, Robert A.Moffitt, and Constance F.Citro, Editors. Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Engineering

Institute of Medicine

National Research Council

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M.Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm.A.Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I.Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M.Alberts and Dr. Wm.A.Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
×

PANEL ON DATA AND METHODS FOR MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS

ROBERT A.MOFFITT (Chair),

Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University

JOHN L.ADAMS,

RAND, Santa Monica, California

THOMAS CORBETT,

Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, Madison

JOHN L.CZAJKA,

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Washington, D.C.

KATHRYN EDIN,

Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

IRWIN GARFINKEL,

School of Social Work, Columbia University

ROBERT M.GOERGE,

Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago

ERIC A.HANUSHEK,

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

V.JOSEPH HOTZ,

Departments of Economics and Policy Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

RICHARD A.KULKA,

Statistics, Health, and Social Policy, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC

REBECCA A.MAYNARD,

Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

SUZANNE M.RANDOLPH,

Department of Family Studies, University of Maryland

WERNER SCHINK,

California Department of Social Services, Sacramento

MICHELE VER PLOEG, Study Director

CONSTANCE F.CITRO, Senior Program Officer

MICHAEL SIRI, Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS 2001

JOHN E.ROLPH (Chair),

Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

JOSEPH G.ALTONJI,

Department of Economics, Northwestern University

ROBERT BELL,

AT&T Laboratories-Research, Florham Park, NJ

LAWRENCE D.BROWN,

Department of Statistics, University of Pennsylvania

ROBERT M.GROVES,

Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Michigan

HERMANN HABERMANN,

Statistics Division, United Nations

JOEL L.HOROWITZ,

Department of Economics, University of Iowa

WILLIAM KALSBEEK,

Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

ARLEEN LEIBOWITZ,

School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles

RODERICK J.A.LITTLE,

School of Public Health, University of Michigan

THOMAS A.LOUIS,

RAND, Arlington, VA

DARYL PREGIBON,

AT&T Laboratories-Research, Florham Park, NJ

NORA CATE SCHAEFFER,

Sociology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

MATTHEW D.SHAPIRO,

Department of Economics, University of Michigan

ANDREW A.WHITE, Director

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
×

Acknowledgments

This volume is the product of the hard work of many individuals to whom we are grateful. We would first like to thank the authors of papers for their contributions and for presenting the papers at the workshop or at meetings of the panel. Each of these papers was reviewed by members of the panel and outside reviewers. Most of these reviewers were also discussants at the workshop on Data Collection for Low Income and Welfare Populations held December 16–17, 1999. We are indebted to all reviewers for their constructive comments to the authors: Sandra Berry, Rand; Harold Bloom, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation; Mike Brick, Westat; Sheldon Danziger, University of Michigan; Betsy Martin, U.S. Census Bureau; Daniel McCaffrey, RAND; Charles Metcalf, Mathematica Policy Research; Jeffrey Moore, U.S. Census Bureau; John Karl Scholz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Matthew Stagner, Urban Institute; William Winkler, U.S. Census Bureau; and Laura Zayatz, U.S. Census Bureau. I would also like to thank my fellow members of the Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs for helping to shape the topics of the papers, developing the workshop, and reviewing the papers. Graham Kalton, Westat, and Robert Groves, University of Michigan, should also be thanked for helping the panel identify authors and discussants for these papers.

I would like to thank the staff of the Committee on National Statistics for their work on this volume. I would like to thank my coeditors, Michele Ver Ploeg and Constance F.Citro, for their diligence in polishing the papers and guiding them through the review process. The production of this volume could not be possible without the efforts of Michael Siri, project assistant for the Committee

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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on National Statistics. Michael did an excellent job on the difficult task of getting 14 papers with 14 different formats into a common format for the volume. All of these papers were professionally edited by Laura Penney, to which we are also grateful. Yvonne Wise of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences of the National Research Council is to be thanked for her assistance in shepherding the report through the phases of production.

Finally, we are also grateful to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services for its sponsorship of the panel that made this volume possible.

Robert A.Moffitt, Chair

Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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Contents

 

 

INTRODUCTION
Robert A.Moffitt, Constance F.Citro, and Michele Ver Ploeg

 

1

PART I

 

SURVEY DATA

 

 

   

1 Designing Surveys Acknowledging Nonresponse
Robert M.Groves and Mick P.Couper

 

13

   

2 Methods for Obtaining High Response Rates in Telephone Surveys
David Cantor and Patricia Cunningham

 

55

   

3 High Response Rates for Low-Income Population In-Person Surveys
Charlene Weiss and Barbara A.Bailar

 

86

   

4 Paying Respondents for Survey Participation
Eleanor Singer and Richard A.Kulka

 

105

   

5 Adjusting for Missing Data in Low-Income Surveys
Leyla Mohadjer and G.Hussain Choudhry

 

129

   

6 Measurement Error in Surveys of the Low-Income Population
Nancy A.Mathiowetz, Charlie Brown, and John Bound

 

157

PART II

 

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

 

 

   

7 Matching and Cleaning Administrative Data
Robert M.Goerge and Bong Joo Lee

 

197

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10206.
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STUDIES OF WELFARE POPULATIONS

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This volume, a companion to Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition, is a collection of papers on data collection issues for welfare and low-income populations. The papers on survey issues cover methods for designing surveys taking into account nonresponse in advance, obtaining high response rates in telephone surveys, obtaining high response rates in in-person surveys, the effects of incentive payments, methods for adjusting for missing data in surveys of low-income populations, and measurement error issues in surveys, with a special focus on recall error. The papers on administrative data cover the issues of matching and cleaning, access and confidentiality, problems in measuring employment and income, and the availability of data on children. The papers on welfare leavers and welfare dynamics cover a comparison of existing welfare leaver studies, data from the state of Wisconsin on welfare leavers, and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth used to construct measures of heterogeneity in the welfare population based on the recipient's own welfare experience. A final paper discusses qualitative data.

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