CPS Basic Programs

The programs below take raw data from the Basic CPS and create a subset of consistent labor-market variables from 1994 through the present. These programs generate the core labor-market variables used in various CEPR CPS supplements (Displaced Workers Survey, Job Tenure and Mobility Survey, and Work Schedules, for example), as well as all variables in the CEPR ORG extracts from 1994-on.

These programs are the major source of documentation for our CPS ORG extract from 1994-on. The Stata code show the changes we have made to the original CPS variables in order to create our extract

To create or modify the CEPR CPS supplement extracts from scratch, first download the raw data joint Bureau of the Census-Bureau of Labor Statistics CPS FTP page.

Once you have the data you need, load (a) all the program files from the CEPR CPS supplement extract you’d like to use (see the menu on the right) and (b) all the Basic CPS program files below into the same directory. Then, run the CPS supplement master “do file” in Stata. This will create the CEPR CPS supplement extract, including all the key labor-market variables from the Basic CPS.

Before running the supplement’s “master” program, you will have to adjust the directory structure at the top of the supplement’s “master” file so that it matches the directory structure in your computer.

Since we regularly update files, we recommend that if you use the CEPR CPS supplement extracts for a particular project that you copy the versions of the data files you use in your analysis into a write-protected directory. That way, you’ll always be able to reproduce your earlier analysis, even if we’ve made subsequent revisions to the CEPR extracts.

A compressed version of the full set of files is here:

This compressed file contains the current set of CEPR CPS Basic Programs: