FRB: 1989 SCF
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Survey of Consumer Finances
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1989 Survey of Consumer Finances

Summary Description | Documentation
Survey Data | Replicate Weight Files


Summary Descriptions of 1989 Survey Results
Changes in Family Finances from 1983 to 1989: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances
Arthur B. Kennickell and Janice Shack-Marquez
Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 78 (January 1992), pp. 1-18.
Article (1.3 MB PDF)

Expanded versions of the tables in the Bulletin article, in Excel format
The most recent version of the tables based on the internal and public data are located here.

SCF Chartbook
See the 2004 version for a description.



Special Note on the 1989 SCF
The 1989 SCF had an overlapping panel/cross-section sample design that can be approximately characterized as follows. 1983 participants who still lived at their 1983 addresses in 1989 were included in both the panel and the cross-section. A sample of 1983 participants who had moved was followed, and these cases have only panel representation. New residents of 1983 sample addresses and members of a newly selected cross-section sample have only cross-sectional representation. The data referenced on this page pertain only to cases with cross-sectional representation. Data for cases with panel representation may be found on the 1983-1989 Panel SCF page.

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Documentation of 1989 Survey Data
Four types of technical documentation for the 1989 SCF are available: the 1989 codebook, a questionnaire-style summary of the survey variables, the household enumeration folder (HEF), and the survey questionnaire. In addition, technical working papers on the survey methodology are available.

Codebook for the 1989 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 technical aspects of the survey design, guidelines used in editing, and a list of the variables included in the public data set.
Codebook (647 KB ASCII)
Codebook last updated April 25, 2007

Questionnaire-Style Summary of the 1989 SCF Variables
This document is based on the questionnaire for the 1989 SCF. The questionnaire has been altered to include the SCF X-variable names of the final variables. The codes available in this document do not always include the full range used in the data set. The codebook is the appropriate place to turn for the fine details of the structure of the data.
Questionnaire-style summary (5.3 MB PDF)
Document last updated March 1, 2001

Household Enumeration Folder (HEF)
The 1989 HEF contains forms used for the non-interview reports, the household listing, the first contact with the household, and the record of calls made on the household.
HEF (1.1 MB PDF)

Survey Questionnaire for the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances
The 1989 survey data were collected using a paper questionnaire.
Questionnaire (2.9 MB PDF) | Questionnaire (12.6 MB Postscript)

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1989 Survey Data
Two general types of data set are provided: first, the full public data set is given in SAS, Stata, and ASCII formats; second, an extract file of summary variables is provided in Excel format. All of these files are provided in compressed form as WINZIP files. (See H.15 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 and internally coherent imputation replicates (implicates). Thus, for the 3,143 families interviewed for the survey, there are 15,715 records in the data set. The codebook provides more detail on the structure of the data set.

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 89.4 MB of disk space and the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 197 MB of disk space. When uncompressed and imported as a V9.1.3 engine SAS data set, these files require 286 MB of disk space.

Main survey data: CPORT version (4.2 MB ZIP)
Main survey data: COPY/EXPORT version (7.5 MB ZIP)
Data last updated March 2, 2007


Full Public Data Set: Stata format
A second version of the full public data set is given as a Stata data set. Because the data set contains approximately 3500 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 73.3 MB of disk space.

Main survey data: Stata (4.4 MB ZIP)
Data last updated March 2, 2007


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 sets. 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 524 MB of disk space.

Main survey data: ASCII (15.1 MB ZIP)
Map of variables: Excel (394 KB)
Map of variables: Tab-delimited (110 KB)
Data last updated March 2, 2007

Tabling Wizard and Extract of the Full Public Data Set
The extract file of the survey data is provided in Excel format. The summary variables included correspond to those used in the analysis reported in the Bulletin article available above. All dollar values are given in 1989 dollars. The definitions of the summary variables are given in a worksheet included with the program and more detailed defintions are provided in the SAS program used to create the summary variables. Two versions of the extract are provided. One includes a tabling wizard written in Visual Basic code; the other does not. The tabling wizard allows users to calculate tables of descriptive weighted statistics. Please refer to the manual for instructions on how to use this wizard.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download the spreadsheet file in unzipped form; the resulting XLS file will require 21.2 MB of disk space for the file that only includes data and 11.3 MB for the file that includes the tabling wizard and data.

SAS program used to create summary variables
Extract of public data (2.6 MB ZIP)
Extract of public data with SCF tabling wizard (1.6 MB ZIP)
SCF tabling wizard manual (48 KB PDF)
Data last updated April 25, 2007

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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 X42001 are available. See the codebook for more details. When uncompressed and restored to a V6.12 engine SAS data set, each file requires 34.5 MB of disk space.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 24.2 MB of disk space, the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 33.2 MB of disk space, and the resulting Stata file will require 27.2 MB of disk space.

Replicate weights--X42001: CPORT version (18.9 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--X42001: COPY/EXPORT version (18.9 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--X42001: Stata version (18 MB ZIP)
Data last updated February 24, 2006


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