RAND Fat File For HRS 1996 (Wave 3)
====================================

The documentation for the RAND HRS 1996 Fat File is in
randff_h96f3.pdf.
Note: The documentation file has not been updated for V4 but
not much changed between V3 and V4.  

The data files, provided in three formats, have been encrypted.  It is
important to copy these files to hard drive before unencrypting.  When the
corresponding *.zip file is double-clicked, select extract, select the
folder to store the files, and provide the proper pass-phrase.  A
subfolder will be created and the data files will be unzipped to that
folder (Target subfolder).  Please use WinZip V10 or higher to unzip
the file.  You can download WinZip from www.winzip.com.

Format          File                    Target subfolder
------		----			----------------
Sas V8          h96f4_Sas8.zip          Sas8\
Stata 8 SE      h96f4_Stata8SE.zip      Stata8SE\
Spss            h96f4_Spss.zip          Spss\

NOTE: all data files are sorted by HHIDPN and have 10964 observations.

==============================================================
The RAND fat file for HRS 1996 is stored as:

Sas8\h96f4a.sas7bdat 	= SAS V8 for Unix/PC
Stata8SE\h96f4a.dta	= Stata V8 SE
Spss\h96f4a.sav         = Spss

h96f4a.cont contains the SAS contents listing for the h96f4a SAS 
data set.

=======================================================================

The RAND Income and Wealth Imputations are separate files, 
each stored in several formats: 

Sas8\incm96f4.sas7bdat 	= SAS V8 for Unix/PC
Stata8SE\incm96f4.dta 	= Stata V8 SE
Spss\incm96f4.sav       = Spss

Sas8\wlth96f4.sas7bdat 	= SAS V8 for Unix/PC
Stata8SE\wlth96f4.dta 	= Stata V8 SE
Spss\wlth96f4.sav       = Spss

see the randff_h96f3.pdf file for a description of these files.

incm96f4.cont and wlth96f4.cont contain the SAS contents listings
for the incm96f4 and wlth96f4 SAS data sets.

==============================================================
The following files provide SAS formats and the variables
assignments for them. They are in the Fmts\ subdirectory.

h96bkth.fmt	SAS formats (VALUE statements) for HHold level
		categorical bracket variables
h96bkth.format	the FORMAT statement mapping HHold level
		bracket variables to SAS formats

h96bktr.fmt	SAS formats (VALUE statements) for Respondent level
		categorical bracket variables
h96bktr.format	the FORMAT statement mapping Respondent level
		bracket variables to SAS formats

income.fmt	SAS formats (VALUE statements) for income
		imputation and received flags
wealth.fmt	SAS formats (VALUE statements) for wealth
		imputation and ownership flags

incwealth96.format  FORMAT statements mapping income and wealth
		imputation and ownership flags to SAS formats
		
========================================================================

The HRS data used for these files are:
   - HRS 1996, Version 4
   - Tracker V3.1

========================================================================

Readme last updated 6/2006.