ROTATE is a 1-digit numeric variable.

Description

ROTATE identifies the "rotation group" or survey subsample (from 1 to 8) for a household included in the ASEC CPS. In the CPS sampling scheme, each month a new rotation group (i.e., a new group of households from sampled addresses) is added for its first month of interviewing, and the rotation group that was interviewed for the eighth time in the preceding month is permanently dropped from the sample. Households in each rotation group are interviewed for four consecutive months, left out of the sample for the next eight months, and then interviewed for four more consecutive months. A household has a value of 1 for ROTATE during the first month it was interviewed, a value of 5 when persons at that address are interviewed again after an eight-month hiatus, and a value of 8 for the final interview month.

This 4-8-4 rotation pattern produces a 75 percent overlap in the households included in the survey month-to-month and a 50 percent overlap year-to-year. Knowing the rotation group of a particular household can help researchers follow some individuals in the survey over time, but, because it is limited to the ASEC survey only, IPUMS-CPS is not currently designed for such longitudinal research.

Comparability

This variable is comparable across years. For 1968 forward, the same information is reported in MISH, a household-level variable.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_MIS_A1