Codes

This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.

Description

GOTREGCT indicates whether the respondent received income from regular contributions from persons living outside the household during the previous calendar year. For 1976-1987, the amounts of income from such regular contributions were subsumed in a residual category for income from various "other" sources (sources other than wages, own business, farm, welfare, Social Security, other government programs, interest, dividends, or rent) in the INCALOTH variable. Although the amounts received from regular contributions cannot be identified prior to 1988, researchers can analyze the characteristics of the recipients of such regular contributions.

Comparability

This variable is largely comparable over time, but the wording changed slightly. In 1976-1977 and 1979, interviewers asked whether respondents received money from "regular contributions from persons not living in the household." In 1978, the question referred to "financial assistance from relatives, friends, or private charitable organizations (excluding loans)." Beginning in 1980, respondents were asked about "regular financial assistance from friends or relatives not living in this household (Do not include loans)." Various inconsistencies in the question wording--in whether loans were specifically excluded, in how "persons not living outside the household" were defined (as friends and relatives only, or including private charitable organizations), and in whether "regular" contributions or occasional/one-time financial assistance should be reported--may produce some differences across years in the responses.

The public use data files for 1969-1975 also contain this variable, but the results are not reliable. In the 1969-1975 files, many persons coded as yes in GOTREGCT do not have reported income in INCALOTH, which included income from regular contributions from persons outside the household.

Beginning in 1988, the amount of income received from regular contributions from persons outside the household during the previous calendar year is reported in INCASIST. Persons with income in INCASIST (i.e., those with values between 1 and 99998 in this variable) for 1988-2004 can be compared to persons with a yes response (code 2) in GOTREGCT for 1976-1987.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_INCS12_A2