Description
For all persons, INCPROP reports all income received from the sale of property or other assets, including the sale of their home, if it is taxable, during the current calendar year. Using the reported income information, annual income amounts were then edited and imputed for every record on the full-year file. Please refer to the IPUMS user note on Income Data in MEPS for more information on the collection, editing (including top- and bottom-coding), and imputation of income variables in MEPS, as well as changes to the target population for income data collection over time. Users may also be interested in the data quality flag, QINCPROP, which reports the editing methods used for INCPROP.
If respondents needed more information about how to report income from shared property, they were told: "If any money from a shared property or other asset, include only the amount that would be your portion."
Information on the IPUMS defined-universe for this variable
Users may wish to note that, while IPUMS defines the universe for this variable as all persons, certain persons were explicitly targeted to answer questions about specific income sources. In addition to the target population of persons who were asked specifically about sales income, all persons in the household were eligible to list additional income from "other" sources, which includes income from sources previously asked about in the survey (such as sales income). It is unclear if sales income reported as an "other" income source is counted in sales income or "other" income. Because all persons could technically report sales income via the "other" income questionnaire item, IPUMS staff report the universe for INCPROP as being "All Persons." Users may also wish to note that in the original public use MEPS data files, no income variables have cases explicitly coded as out of universe; both persons who directly report earning zero dollars of income from a source and persons who are not explicitly asked about that income source have values of zero.
INCPROP is a 9-digit numeric variable with 2 implied decimals. That is, values of 012345678 should be interpreted as 123456.78. The command files delivered with IPUMS extracts automatically divide INCPROP by 100, so no further adjustment is needed.
9999999.96: Not in Universe
9999999.97: Unknown-refused
9999999.98: Unknown-not ascertained
9999999.99: Unknown-don't know
Comparability
While all persons could report property and asset sales income regardless of age and tax filing status if they reported it as an "other" income source, certain persons were explicitly asked questions about sales income. The persons specifically targeted to answer these questions changes over time, with an expansion of the target population beginning in 2002. For more information on how income data were collected by MEPS and changes to the target population for these questions over time, please see the IPUMS user note on Income Data in MEPS.
Beginning to 1999, persons could only report income in full dollar amounts. Prior to 1999, persons could report income in dollars and cents.
Universe
- 1996-2021: All persons.
Availability
- 1996-2021
Weights
- 1996-2021 : PERWEIGHT
