PSID-SHELF, 1968–2021: The PSID's Social, Health, and Economic Longitudinal File (PSID-SHELF), Beta Release

The <b>Panel Study of Income Dynamics–Social, Health, and Economic Longitudinal File (PSID-SHELF)</b> provides an easy-to-use and harmonized longitudinal file for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the longest-running nationally representative household panel survey in the world.<br><br>The first major benefit of PSID-SHELF is that it provides users with a longitudinal data file that features the complete sample of the PSID's multigenerational panel. The current version of PSID-SHELF includes 42 waves of survey data, ranging from 1968 to 2021. Every individual who has ever been observed in the PSID Main Study is included in PSID-SHELF. There are over 8,000 sample families, comprising more than 900,000 observations from roughly 53,000 sample members (and an additional 30,000 nonsample individuals who have ever lived in a PSID family unit). <br>The second major benefit of PSID-SHELF is that it features a novel set of harmonized measures on a wide range of substantive topics, including: (1) <b>social characteristics</b> (e.g., demographics, family type, education, race and ethnicity); (2) <b>health characteristics</b> (e.g., chronic conditions, COVID-19, dementia, disability); (3) <b>economic characteristics</b> (e.g., earnings, family income, occupations, wealth)—as well as a list of the PSID's essential administrative variables (e.g., survey identifiers, panel status, sample weights, household relationship records). Consequently, PSID-SHELF covers some of the most central variables in the PSID that have been collected for up to five decades.<br>PSID-SHELF can be used as a standalone data file, or it can easily be merged with other PSID data products to add additional public-use variables, by linking variables to a participant’s individual and family unit identifiers. The harmonized longitudinal file accentuates the PSID's strengths through its <b>household panel structure</b> that follows the same families over multiple decades and its <b>multigenerational genealogical design</b> that follows the descendants of PSID families that were originally sampled in 1968, with immigrant refresher samples in 1997–1999 and 2017–2019.<br>Although the PSID strives to ensure longitudinally consistent measurement, there are a number of variables that have changed across waves (e.g., because of new code frames, top-codes, question splitting, or other changes to the survey interview). But data harmonization, by necessity, involves analytic decisions that users may or may not agree with. These decisions are described at a high level in the PSID-SHELF User Guide and Codebook, but only a close review of the construction files that were used to generate PSID-SHELF can fully reveal each analytic decision. The Stata code underlying PSID-SHELF is publicly available not only to allow for such review but also to encourage users, as they become more comfortable with PSID, to use and alter the full code or selected code snippets for their own analytic purposes.<br><br>Despite multiple code reviews, it is possible that the files used to produce PSID-SHELF contain errors. As such, we encourage users to review the code carefully. If identified, please report any mistakes or errors to us (<b>[e-mail]</b>). The authors wish to underscore that PSID-SHELF is currently being shared as a data product, in beta, and users are responsible for any errors arising from the provided code and files. <br><b>Current Version <br></b>2025-01 (data release number).<br><b>Permanent DOI</b>DOI:10.3886/E194322 (data).DOI:10.7302/25205 (documentation).<br><b>Recommended Citations<br></b>Please cite PSID-SHELF in any product that makes use of the data or documentation. Anyone who uses PSID-SHELF should cite the data or the PSID-SHELF User Guide and Codebook—and, as required by the PSID user agreement, the PSID Main Study.<br><br>PSID-SHELF data:<br>Pfeffer, Fabian T., Davis Daumler, and Esther Friedman. PSID-SHELF, 1968–2021: The PSID’s Social, Health, and Economic Longitudinal File (PSID-SHELF), Beta Release. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], <b>&lt;date last modified&gt;</b>. DOI:10.3886/E194322.<br><br>PSID-SHELF User Guide and Codebook:<br>Daumler, Davis, Esther Friedman, and Fabian T. Pfeffer. 2025. PSID-SHELF User Guide and Codebook, 1968–2021, Beta Release. PSID-SHELF Data Documentation 2025-01. Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. DOI:10.7302/25205.<br><br>The PSID Main Study data:<br>Panel Study of Income Dynamics, public-use dataset <b>&lt;or "restricted-use data," if appropriate&gt;</b>. Produced and distributed by the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI: <b>&lt;year of data retrieval&gt;</b>.