We quantify sources of variation in annual job earnings data collected by the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to determine how much of the variation is the result of measurement error. Jobs reported in the SIPP are linked to jobs reported in an administrative database, the...

This paper was prepared for the New Zealand Ministry of Labor Conference on Data Integration and Linked Employer-Employee Data held March 21-22, 2002. I would like to thank my coauthors Patrick Corbel, Rob Creecy, Bruno Crepon, John Haltiwanger, Francis Kramarz, Julia Lane, Paul Lengermann,...