Identifying and Misidentifying Single Mothers in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES, Vol. 32, No. 3, Summer 1997

Posted: 7 May 1997

Abstract

Many studies of single motherhood and related problems of welfare use and poverty have used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Unfortunately, the PSID's Family Unit (FU) Head definition omits subfamily single mothers not observed to leave their household of origin. Resulting biases in terms of the age, race, welfare use, and poverty status are estimated in the present study by using the 1968-85 PSID Relationship File. Substantial undercounts of single mothers in the younger ages and some overcounts at older ages are found, especially for black mothers.

JEL Classification: J15, J16, I32, D31, J13

Suggested Citation

Rendall, Michael S., Identifying and Misidentifying Single Mothers in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES, Vol. 32, No. 3, Summer 1997, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3939

Michael S. Rendall (Contact Author)

RAND Corporation ( email )

1776 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
472
PlumX Metrics