Survey of Income and Program Participation

Intro and Overview

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is a household survey run by the US Census Bureau. It is nationally representative and longitudinal, following sampled households over approximately four years. It contains some of the most detailed survey measures of income and transfer programs. While the SIPP began in 1984, the size and timing of panels is inconsistent in early years. Several panels were terminated early due to insufficient funding. A major redesign in the 1990s changed the SIPP from 1996 forward to enlarge the sample, include an over sample of high poverty areas, and focus on one panel at a time interviewed over four years. The current panel is the 2014 panel which began in February 2014 and interviewed each of 53,000 households four times (once per year). Prior SIPP panels were interviewed three times per year. The 1992 and 993 SIPP panels continued to be interviewed through annually through 2002 as part of the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD).  Links to an external site.The 2014 SIPP households also completed the Social Security Administration Supplement.  Links to an external site.Topics in the SSA Supplement include personal retirement account contributions and withdrawals, participation in employer provided pension plans, marital history, health status, and disabilities.

There is also a SIPP Synthetic Beta (SSB) data Links to an external site. product that offers the unique advantage of linkages between SIPP data and SSA/IRS W2 earnings information and SSA retirement and disability benefit receipt. To product confidentiality, these data are synthetic - meaning the values for any sensitive variables are "modeled" and the individual records are altered in a way that preserves covariate relationships. The SSB spans panels 1984 through 2008 and includes harmonized versions of all variables, then administrative data are added. This may be an easy was to get started with the SIPP because little data preparation is needed. The SSB does not require any cost for access. Approved users receive a free account for using the Synthetic Data Server. An application is required but Census attempt to approve applications within five business days. Results can be validated on the Completed Gold Standard Files.

Tips for Getting Started

The Census Bureau hosted and recorded a detailed Webinar series on the SIPP available on YouTube.

To explore SIPP content, go to this page. Links to an external site.

All SIPP User Guides (including the SSA Supplement Users' Guide) are available here, Links to an external site.and additional guidance for data users (including use of sampling weights) is available here. Links to an external site.

The SIPP Synthetic Beta codebook is available here. Links to an external site.

Key Advantages

  • Very thorough questions on income and program participation.
  • Includes persons of all ages, unlike the HRS.
  • Larger sample than the PSID
  • Linkage to administrative data from IRS and SSA can overcome measurement error inherent in survey responses to income questions.

Key Disadvantages

  • Complexity. The learning curve can be steep if you are working with multiple panels (SSB may help).
  • Changes in design of both questionnaires and timing of waves can make harmonization tricky (SSB may help).

Papers Using these Data

A bibliography is available on this page: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/guidance.html Links to an external site.