The Web Investigator contains the most recent release of each NLS cohort with corrections made to items noted in the Errata of prior releases. Known problems with the current release of the NLSY79 are found below. Users are urged to access the NLS cohorts through the Web Investigator, if they are not already doing so. For further questions, please contact NLS User Services.

There are two pages missing from the printed copy of the questionnaire, (IFT 330 and IFT 331) while we have inserted the pages in this copy of the questionnaire, if they become separated you can print off the pages from the questionnaire on your CD.

Users should also be aware of some inconsistencies in the data and documentation for all CAPI surveys of Mature and Young Women. All surveys since 1995 have been conducted using Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI). This errata notice provides a list of the general problems that have been identified.

Young Women, incorrect codebook
The Young Woman R12196.00 (1988 survey, question 113) has the incorrect description in the codebook. The data are correct and match the answer categories in the question text. This item will be corrected in the next release.

CAPI Years
Problems cited below pertain to both women's cohorts.

Incorrect Title(s)
One variable in 2001 for the Mature and Young Women is incorrect.

• R62437.0 TYPE OF DISCRIMINATION EXPERIENCED AT WORK SINCE LAST INT - RACE

• R62437.0 TYPE OF DISCRIMINATION EXPERIENCED AT WORK SINCE LAST INT - DISABILITY, 2001

Titles for two 1989 Mature Women variables have been found in error. Currently, the titles indicate R (respondent), however, the variables actually refer to the husband. The variable reference numbers and correct titles are:

• R09864.00 MAIN PENSION, HUSBAND - REDUCED BENEFITS RECEIVED AFTER EARLY RETIREMENT, 89 (MONTHLY)
• R09866.00 MAIN PENSION, HUSBAND - BASED ON YEARS OF SERVICE/BALANCE IN ACCOUNT? 89

Problematic Codebook Distributions and Frequencies
There are some variables for which the continuous code distribution in the codebook shows more cases than a frequency count of the actual data. In each of these instances the data are correct. The error appears only in the codebook.

Undocumented Codebook Skip Patterns
There are a number of variables for which the codebook does not document all the possible skip patterns for that question. Similarly, information on the lead-in question is missing for some variables in the codebook. These codebook anomalies do not impact on the data or the questionnaire; the correct skip patterns are present in the questionnaire and the data reflect the correct skip patterns. If users feel that a skip instruction may be missing or incorrect for a variable not listed, they are urged to check the questionnaire for more details.

Implausible Values
Some 1995 to 2001 data items may contain what appear to be implausible or unreasonable values. While these values may not be incorrect, they seem unusual. In the past, when a respondent had an unusual value for an item the archivist could refer to the respondent's paper questionnaire to determine if the data was the result of a data entry error. However, this is no longer possible with a CAPI instrument. Instead, the archivist has retained the values rather than blanking or revising them, leaving the researcher to decide how to treat such values.

1989 Mature Women Pension Data File

A problem has been found and corrected with the Mature Women 1989 supplemental pension data file.

The pension data was originally created by Michigan's ISR and is taken from the actual pension descriptions all large companies and government agencies are required to file with the Department of Labor. Using the cross-walk information included on the main MW data-set and the supplemental pension file it is possible to know the exact details of the pension's that cover many of the respondents.

The problem was that for 26% of the cases the data dictionary was incorrect. It appears that ISR wrote some (3/4) of the pension data using one output format and some (1/4) using a slightly different output statement.

The areas of the cases that were problematic contain no real data. Each of the 815 pension descriptors is a huge (19,000 bytes) record and large swaths of each record are empty. For example, the defined benefit plans have no data in areas reserved for tracking defined contribution plans. All of the problems occurred in the middle of a section that for those cases were filled with zeros and ".". However, to avoid any confusion we initialized the misaligned data and then wrote out a corrected data file that matches the data dictionary.

The corrected files are currently available on the Web and contain the word "fixed" in the file name.

Last Modified Date: August 25, 2006 - 11:52 AM

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