Description

For all current conditions, PANELX reports the number of the panel of which the participant was a member on the condition record. MEPS began in 1996 with Panel number 1 and the panel number for persons entering the MEPS in each subsequent year increases by 1, so that 1997 had Panels 1 (the panel that entered in 1996, in their second year in 1997) and 2 (the panel newly entering MEPS in 1997), 1998 had Panels 2 and 3, 1999 had Panels 3 and 4, and so on. PANELX can be combined with DUIDX and PIDX to uniquely identify individuals across panels on round records. IPUMS MEPS offers the constructed variable MEPSIDX that is equal to the concatenated values of PANELX, DUIDX, and PIDX. Beginning in 2018, DUID begins with PANEL and so concatenating PANEL with DUID and PID is no longer necessary.

For more information on the relationship between calendar year, panel, and round data, please see the IPUMS MEPS Panel Design Documentation.

Codes

This is a 2-digit numeric variable.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

• No weights are available for this variable. Please refer to PANELX for more information.

Flags