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Support #427

Income variables' descriptive stats on US website do not match my results

Added by Gabriella Melis over 8 years ago. Updated over 8 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Category:
Data documentation
Start date:
10/02/2015
% Done:

100%


Description

Dear all,

please, could you kindly clarify the following points?

- The variable b_netinc1 as presented on the web (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/2/datafile/b_indresp/variable/b_netinc1)has data available for only 5515 respondents. Instead, from my simple analysis in Stata I get the following summary stats (after recoding missing values):
. sum b_netinc1

Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
b_netinc1 | 54,593 1319.242 1268.53 -15000 15000

The table above shows that data are available for over 50,000 cases, well as that the max income is 15,000, rather than around 7,000 as in the US dedicated webpage. Also, please, why are there negative values in my table? I have simply loaded the data, recoded the missing values into system missing, and then asked for the summary of the stats. Also, does this variable represent the monthly income, just to be 100% sure?

- In the b_hhresp.dta file also the variable b_fihhmngrs_dv on gross hh income presents differences between my Stata summary stats and the ones reported on the web (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/3/datafile/c_hhresp/variable/c_fihhmngrs_dv)

These below are the simple steps of my Stata syntax:

use b_hhresp.dta, clear

. sum b_fihhmngrs_dv

Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
b_fihhmngr~v | 30,508 3116.675 2587.591 -12664.93 20000

.
end of do-file

. mvdecode b_fihhmngrs_dv, mv(-9/-1=.)

. keep if b_fihhmngrs_dv>=0
(33 observations deleted)

. sum b_fihhmngrs_dv

Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
b_fihhmngr~v | 30,475 3122.19 2582.265 0 20000

Please, could you help me understand whether I am doing/interpreting something wrong?

Thank you.

Gabriella

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