The universes and universe descriptions for jointly-held assets and unsecured debts are mis-specified in the 2014 Panel Data Dictionaries (Waves 1-4) but were updated in the 2018 SIPP Data Dictionary. Unless otherwise noted, there were no differences in how variables were edited and processed between the 2014 Panel and the 2018 SIPP. The only difference is an update correcting errors in the universe statements in the 2014 Panel data dictionaries.

Variables for jointly-held assets and unsecured debts were denoted with either (1) a prefix of EJS, to represent assets or debts held jointly with a spouse or civil union partner, or (2) a prefix of EJO, to represent assets or debts held jointly with individuals other than a spouse or civil union partner. Variables that were topcoded have a prefix of TJS or TJO, respectively.

Types of Assets	Variable Names
Government securities	EJSOWNGOVS and EJOOWNGOVS
Checking Accounts	EJSOWNICHK and EJOOWNICHK (available in the 2014 Panel only) EJSOWNCHK and EJOOWNCHK
Savings Accounts	EJSOWNSAV and EJOOWNSAV
Money market deposit accounts or money market funds	EJSOWNMM and EJOOWNMM
Certificates of Deposit	EJSOWNCD and EJOOWNCD
Municipal or corporate bonds	EJSOWNMCBD and EJOOWNMCBD
Stocks	EJSOWNST and EJOOWNST
Mutual Funds	EJSOWNMF and EJOOWNMF
Rental properties	EJSOWNRP and EJOOWNRP
Other real estate	EJSOWNRE and EJOOWNRE
Types of Unsecured Debts
Money owed for credit cards or store bills	EJSCCDEBT
Student loans or educational expenses	EJSEDDEBT
Other debts, such as medical bills not covered by insurance (2014 Panel only), loans obtained through a bank or credit union, money owed to private individuals, debt held against mutual funds or stocks	EJSOTDEBT

Assets and Unsecured Debts Held Jointly with a Spouse

Conditional on holding a given asset or unsecured debt, the 2014 Panel Data Dictionaries described the universe for variables with an EJS or TJS prefix as “having a spouse or civil union partner in the household at the end of the reference period.”

However, the data were coded such that the universe includes respondents who have a spouse in the household both in December of the reference year and at the time of interview. Therefore, for variables with an EJS or TJS prefix, the universe description should read as “…had a spouse in the household at the end of the reference period and at the time of interview or had a civil union partner in the household at the end of the reference period.” Note that assets and unsecured debts held jointly between respondents in a civil union or registered domestic partnership were unaffected by this mis-specification, and the universe for this subset of respondents were correctly defined.

Therefore, conditional on holding a given asset or unsecured debt, the 2014 Panel Data Dictionaries incorrectly define the universe as

EMS_EHC = 1 or EREGDOMPART = 1 for MONTHCODE = 12.

Instead, as documented in the 2018 Data Dictionary, the universe should be defined as

(EMS_EHC = 1 for MONTHCODE = 12 and EMS = 1) or EREGDOMPART = 1 for MONTHCODE = 12.

Assets and Unsecured Debts Held Jointly with Individuals Other Than a Spouse or Partner

Conditional on holding a given asset or unsecured debt, the 2014 Panel Data Dictionaries described the universe for variables with an EJO or TJO prefix as “not having a spouse or civil union partner in the household at the end of the reference period.”

However, the data were coded such that the universe descriptions should read as “…did not have a spouse in the household either at the end of the reference period or at the time of interview and did not have a civil union partner in the household at the end of the reference period.”

For variables with an EJO or TJO prefix, conditional on holding a given asset or unsecured debt, the 2014 Panel Data Dictionaries incorrectly specify the universe as

EMS_EHC not equal to 1 and EREGDOMPART not equal to 1 for MONTHCODE = 12.

Instead, as documented in the 2018 Data Dictionary, the universe should be defined as

(EMS_EHC not equal to 1 for MONTHCODE = 12 or EMS not equal to 1) and EREGDOMPART not equal to 1 for MONTHCODE = 12.