2007-09 Panel Survey of Consumer Finances
Summary Results
Preliminary analysis of the SCF panel data is provided in the Finance and Economics Discussion Series (FEDS) working paper referenced below and in the accompanying set of appendix tables. Additional papers using the survey data are available on the working papers page.
Surveying the Aftermath of the Storm: Changes in Family Finances from 2007 to 2009
Jesse Bricker, Brian Bucks, Arthur Kennickell, Traci Mach and Kevin Moore
FEDS paper (171 KB PDF)
Appendix Tables for the FEDS Article, in Excel Format
Additional tables are available in Excel format (users without Excel may download the free Excel viewer). These tables contain estimates of median income and net worth by selected demographic characteristics, percent of families holding and median value of selected financial assets, nonfinancial assets, and debts by demographic characteristics. Four sets are provided. For both the internal and public versions of the SCF data, estimates are given in nominal and in inflation-adjusted terms.
Tables Based on the Internal Data
The calculations reported in these tables are weighted estimates made from the internal data. The program that creates the variables can be found here.
Estimates in nominal dollars (334 KB Excel)
Estimates inflation-adjusted to 2009 dollars (322 KB Excel)
Last updated 3/28/2012
Tables Based on the Public Data
The calculations reported in these tables are weighted estimates made from the public data. The program that creates the variables can be found here.
Estimates in nominal dollars (286 KB Excel)
Estimates inflation-adjusted to 2009 dollars (285 KB Excel)
Last updated 3/28/2012
Documentation
Four types of technical documentation for the 2007-09 Panel SCF are available on this page: the 2007-09 codebook, a text version of the questionnaire, the SAS program used to create variables for the 2007 SCF comparable to those collected in the 2007-09 Panel SCF, and a copy of the MR Interview (r) computer code that was used for computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). In addition, technical working papers on the survey methodology are available.
Codebook for the 2007-09 Panel Survey of Consumer Finances
The codebook contains the text, variable names, and responses for the questions asked in the survey. Also provided are a brief summary of the technical features of the survey design; a copy of the source code for the CAPI program, a concordance of variable names in the final data set and those used in the CAPI program; two programs that calculate standard errors for regression models and another program to calculate standard errors for simple statistics such as weighted medians, all three of which account for sampling error and multiple imputation; and a list of the variables included in the public data set.
Codebook (784 KB ASCII)
Last updated 9/4/2014
Questionnaire for the 2007-09 Panel Survey of Consumer Finances
The questionnaire is a paper representation of the CAPI program used to administer the survey.
Questionnaire (207 KB ASCII)
Last updated 3/20/2012
SAS Program to Map 2007 SCF Variables to 2007-09 Panel Variables
These SAS programs provided documentation on the methods for creating variables for the 2007 SCF comparable to those collected in the 2007-09 Panel SCF.
SAS program (42 KB ZIP)
Last updated 3/26/2012
Showcards
At key points during the administration of the interview, interviewers show the respondents a series of cards containing information relevant to framing or answering a question. Most of this information is displayed as part of the question text or response categories, but some is more general.
Showcards (25 KB PDF)
Last updated 3/21/2012
MR Interview (r) Computer Code used for Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)
The 2007-09 panel survey data were collected using CAPI. A copy of the source code for the program is provided below. In previous years of the SCF, an executable version of the CAPI program has been provided, but for 2009, only a text version of the program code is available. Licensed users of MR Interview who wish to run this software should right click and choose save, then change the file extension to .mdd.
MR Interview Program (2.5 MB ASCII)
Last updated 6/25/2009
Survey Data
Two general types of data set are provided:
Full Public Data: Full data sets of all SCF variables
Summary Extract Data: Extract data set of summary variables used in the FEDS article appendix tables – all dollar variables inflation-adjusted to 2013 dollars
All of these files are provided in compressed form as WINZIP files. (See PKWARE website for software to uncompress WINZIP files.)
Missing data in the survey have been imputed five times using a multiple imputation technique. The information is stored in five separate imputation replicates (implicates). Thus, for the 3,862 families interviewed for the survey, there are 19,310 records in the data set. Five observations were deleted for the public version of the data set for purposes of disclosure avoidance; thus, there are 19,285 records in the public data set for 3,857 families. The codebook provides more detail on the structure of the data set and the steps taken for disclosure avoidance.
Full Public Data set: SAS Format
The full final survey data are available to the public in two SAS transport formats that may be used with the current version of SAS. (Help is available for importing these files as SAS data sets.) One version is created using PROC CPORT; this is the smaller of the two files. The second one is created using PROC COPY with the EXPORT option; this file may be particularly convenient for users who do not have access to SAS, but who do have some means of translating the data set to another form using a software package that does not support CPORT files.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 137 MB of disk space and the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 324 MB of disk space. When uncompressed and imported as a V9.1.3 engine SAS data set, these files require 402 MB of disk space.
Main survey data: CPORT version ( 7.1 MB ZIP)
Main survey data: COPY/EXPORT version ( 10.5 MB ZIP)
Last updated 9/4/2014
Full Public Data set: Stata Format
A second version of the full public data set is given as a Stata data file. Because the data set contains approximately 3700 variables, users will need to use Stata SE if they wish to import all the variables. Users of standard Stata will need to specify a subset of variables when using the data set.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting Stata file will require 122 MB of disk space.
Main survey data: Stata version ( 6 MB ZIP)
Last updated 9/4/2014
Full Public Data set: ASCII format
A third version of the full public data set is given in ASCII format. The variables included have exactly the same values as those in the SAS and Stata data set. The layout of the variables is given by a format file, which is provided in Excel and tab-delimited formats. Note that under certain operating systems the end of record marker will add one character to the record length listed in the format file.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting ASCII file will require 681 MB of disk space.
Main survey data: ASCII ( 23.3 MB ZIP)
Map of variables: Excel ( 568 KB Excel)
Map of variables: Tab-delimited ( 151 KB ASCII)
Last updated 9/4/2014
Summary Extract Data set: SAS format
The summary extract data set contains variables used in the FEDS article appendix tables. All dollar variables have been inflation-adjusted to 2013 dollars. Definitions of the variables in the summary extract dataset can be found in the SAS program used to create the data set. The SAS version is created using PROC CPORT, a version using PROC COPY and the EXPORT option is not provided due to the limitation on the length of variable names when using the EXPORT option.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 27 MB of disk space.
SAS extract data ( 8.5 MB ZIP)
Last updated 10/2/2012
Summary Extract Data set: Stata format
A second version of the extract data set is given as a Stata data file.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting Stata file will require 38 MB of disk space.
Stata extract data ( 8.4 MB ZIP)
Last updated 10/2/2012
Summary Extract Data set: Excel format
A third version of the extract data set is given as an Excel file. Due to column limitiations in versions of Excel prior to 2007, the full file can only be viewed in Excel 2007 and later versions.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting Excel file will require 48 MB of disk space.
Excel extract data ( 45.8 MB ZIP)
Last updated 10/2/2012
Replicate Weight Files
For many purposes, one must consider the sampling error of SCF estimates. However, because detailed information on the sample design cannot be released, and because of the complexity of the SCF design, users cannot apply some of the standard procedures for variance estimation. A set of sample replicates has been created with bootstrap techniques and analysis weights have been computed independently for each replicate. Analysts may use these weights to make approximate estimates of sampling variance. Replicate weights corresponding to P42001 are available. See the codebook for more details. When uncompressed and restored to a V9.1.3 engine SAS data set, each file requires 48 MB of disk space.
WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 35 MB of disk space, the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 40 MB of disk space, and the resulting Stata file will require 33 MB of disk space.
Replicate weights--P42001: CPORT version (22.7 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--P42001: COPY/EXPORT version (22.6 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--P42001: Stata version (22.1 MB ZIP)
Last updated 9/4/2014