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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
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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.
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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
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
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
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
Contents
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INTRODUCTION |
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1 Designing Surveys Acknowledging Nonresponse |
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2 Methods for Obtaining High Response Rates in Telephone Surveys |
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3 High Response Rates for Low-Income Population In-Person Surveys |
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4 Paying Respondents for Survey Participation |
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5 Adjusting for Missing Data in Low-Income Surveys |
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6 Measurement Error in Surveys of the Low-Income Population |
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7 Matching and Cleaning Administrative Data |
8 Access and Confidentiality Issues with Administrative Data |
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9 Measuring Employment and Income for Low-Income Populations with Administrative and Survey Data |
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10 Administrative Data on the Well-Being of Children On and Off Welfare |
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11 The Right (Soft) Stuff: Qualitative Methods and the Study of Welfare Reform |
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12 Studies of Welfare Leavers: Data, Methods, and Contributions to the Policy Process |
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13 Preexit Benefit Receipt and Employment Histories and Postexit Outcomes of Welfare Leavers |
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14 Experienced-Based Measures of Heterogeneity in the Welfare Caseload |
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Appendix: Agenda of the Workshop on Data Collection for Low-Income and Welfare Populations |
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