Conducting Research Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) - an Introductory Workshop

Lead Instructor: H. Luke Shaefer

Co-organizer: Martha J. Bailey

The Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, in collaboration with the National Poverty Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, invites applications to participate in a five-day workshop June 23-27, 2014, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The workshop will introduce participants to the use of micro-data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and provide hands-on applications to prepare them to conduct their own SIPP-based research project.

H. Luke Shaefer, Assistant Professor of Social Work and National Poverty Center Research Affiliate, will lead the workshop in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan, the U.S. Census Bureau and other nationally recognized SIPP scholars. The Survey Research Center will pay travel, lodging, and meal costs for a limited number of participants.

Aims for this workshop include the following:

  • Familiarize participants with Census Bureau concepts, such as earnings, household income, program participation, poverty, race, ethnicity, labor force status, and migration, and provide practical tips for handling the SIPP’s complex sample design.
  • Provide hands-on demonstrations for accessing SIPP data via the Census Bureau’s FTP site and the NBER SIPP data page.
  • Provide hands-on demonstrations of analyses of SIPP data related to poverty, employment, and participation in safety net programs.
  • Provide participants with an opportunity to conduct analyses for their own research projects and produce preliminary findings along with an appropriate public-use SIPP data set that can be used when the participant returns to her/his home institution.
  • Introduce participants to new SIPP data products, including the SIPP Synthetic Beta and the newly redesigned SIPP.
  • Provide opportunities for participants to discuss the current status of key research and policy issues with nationally recognized experts.

Classes will meet for two and one-half hour sessions in a computer classroom each morning and afternoon. Participants will extract, work with, and analyze microdata files from the public- use SIPP.

This workshop will not offer instruction in statistics or formal research methods, but the presentations will cover the use of weighted data, tests of significance, and both OLS and logistic regression models.

Participants may want to consider attending, at their own expense, other summer courses offered in Ann Arbor by the Institute for Social Research (see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/sumprog/ and http://si.isr.umich.edu/).

Application

Applications will be accepted from faculty, postdoctoral fellows, advanced doctoral students, federal, state and local-level policy and research analysts, researchers at non-profit organizations, and others who would benefit from this workshop. Preference will be given to applicants who meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • Analysts who work for government agencies and nonprofit organizations who do not have access to instruction on using the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
  • Emerging scholars (Assistant Professors, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Advanced Doctoral Students) working at universities and colleges that do not offer instruction in the use of SIPP.
  • Members of groups historically under-represented in the social sciences. Faculty members from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) are particularly encouraged to apply.

Applicants should submit their proposal via email to SIPP-Michigan-2014@umich.edu
Proposals must be received by 5 PM Eastern Time on Monday, April 7, 2014.

The application should be submitted as a single PDF file that includes the following elements, in the order listed below:

  1. Cover sheet with your name and institutional affiliation with mailing address, email address, and telephone number
  2. Curriculum vita or resume
  3. Brief summary of your current research or analysis activities (about 2 pages)
  4. Description of how analyses of the SIPP Microdata will benefit your research and/ or the analysis needs of your agency or organization (no more than 2 pages)

Direct Questions to: SIPP-Michigan-2014@umich.edu

The deadline for receipt of applications is 5 PM Eastern Time on Monday, April 7, 2014. Selected applicants will be notified no later than Friday, April 25, 2014.

This workshop is part of the NSF-Census Research Network project of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. It is funded by National Science Foundation Grant No. SES 1131500.

Date: 
Jun 23, 2014 to Jun 27, 2014
Address: 
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
United States
Location: