Measuring Essential Industry and Frontline Occupation Using PSID and HRS

This project (5U01AG079065-02) was funded to examine experiences of health and economic challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic across generations of American families and how families responded to these challenges. Achieving this requires understanding the characteristics of each family member and the circumstances they encountered throughout the pandemic, particularly in relation to their work. Accordingly, we create a unique dataset that enhances the rich population-representative panel data in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) by linking comprehensive contextual data to multiple life domains of each generation. This repository provides information and codes for measuring essential work-related status of individuals based on their occupation and industry data, using the PSID and HRS. Researchers can apply these measures across various datasets that include occupation and industry data by using occupation/industry crosswalks.