Imputation of Lifetime Earnings Records

The Imputation of Lifetime Earnings Records data set contains earnings data for 42,232 respondents. This a respondent-level file that contains data for cumulative lifetime earnings through age 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70.

For respondents with matched SSA earnings records, the lifetime earnings include the summation of available data as well as projections. (Take a respondent who only has matched earnings records through age 62 for an example. We use the actual earnings records to calculate lifetime earnings through age 50, 55, and 60; we also project the respondent's earnings through age 70 using the same algorithm we use to estimate Social Security benefits wealth in order to calculate lifetime earnings through age 65 and 70.)

For respondents without any matched SSA earnings records, we impute their cumulative lifetime earnings at HRS entry and then their annual earnings after HRS entry. Imputed lifetime earnings through various ages are calculated accordingly.