Suchergebnisse

The Current Population Survey (CPS), the US government survey from which the unemployment rate is calculated each month, recently underwent a major redesign, culminating in a revised questionnaire & automated data collection procedures that became operational at the beginning of 1994. Traced here is the research process that produced the revised questionnaire, noting some examples of the changes made & pointing to probable changes in the data as indicated by an overlap sample. It is concluded that although changes in the data collection procedure for an important government time series such as that produced by the CPS could cause difficulties, the costs of standing still & the risk that the data from a static survey will increasingly lose their relevance outweigh the costs of change. 3 Tables, 15 References. AA

This article shows how and why interactions among sociological, statistical, and public policy issues fuel the current debate about the quality control systems of three family assistance programs: Food Stamps, AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children), and Medicaid. These interactions will be seen to be driven by social policies that in turn will impinge on issues of estimation, measurement error, detection of outliers, and the implied cost share sanctioning of states by the federal government. The authors' conclusions are related to, and extend, the results of a National Academy of Sciences study of methods for improving the current quality control systems.

Front Matter -- Copyright -- Contents -- PREFACE -- CHAPTER 1 THE SEMINAR -- CHAPTER 2 AFTER THE SEMINAR -- APPENDIX A BACKGROUND PAPERS -- APPENDIX B DESIGNING AND BUILDING THE BRIDGE -- APPENDIX C BACKGROUND MATERIALS FOR THE SEMINAR -- APPENDIX D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PARTICIPANTS -- INDEX.