RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Interview and Finder Files 2020 (V1), supported by NIA

RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Interview Files

The Center has produced versions of the RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Interview data files that merge all the raw variables from each Respondent-level questionnaire section to create a single Respondent-level dataset for each wave.

The structure of the RAND HRS Exit and Post-Exit Interview variable names is very similar. For example, the variable that contains the net value of the estate in the 2014 Exit Interview is called YT173, and the same question in the 2014 Post-Exit Interview is called YPT173. Where appropriate, we have removed the second letter "P" from the Post-Exit variable names so that we can append the Post-Exit Interview data to the Exit Interview Data (e.g., YPT173 is renamed to YT173 in the 2014 Post-Exit Interview data). Post-Exit Interview responses can be identified by POST_EXIT=0. The RAND HRS Exit and Post-Exit Interview Files include all Respondents from both the Exit and Post-Exit Interviews. However, the same person never has both an Exit Interview and Post-Exit Interview in the same year, so the file does not contain multiple occurrences of the same person.

We have also added numeric versions of household and person identifiers, such as HHIDPN, to facilitate matching across years and merging with other RAND HRS data products. There is a single Exit File for each year of HRS starting in 1994 which contains all of the "raw" or original variables, merged to the Respondent level.

RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Finder File

Researchers would most likely want to combine the information from Exit and Post-Exit Interview and link them up with Respondents' Core Interviews. We have created the RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Finder File to make it easy to identify which survey years the Exit and Post-Exit Interviews occurred.

We derive Exit and Post-Exit variables from the Tracker file variable xIWTYPE (Interview Type), where x=Survey Year letter. The EXIT1 variable contains the year the Exit Interview was conducted. For example, if you merge all Respondents in 1992 with the RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Finder File by HHIDPN, and they have missing values for the EXIT1 variable, these Respondents do not have an Exit interview.

Once you have identified the years of Exit and Post-Exit Interviews using the RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Finder file, you can easily merge individual Exit/Post-Exit Fat Files by HHIDPN.

Data Access

  • All RAND HRS data products are available at: https://hrsdata.isr.umich.edu/data-products/rand.
  • The RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Interview and Finder Files 2020 (V1) can be found in the "Longitudinal and Cross-Wave Data Products" section.
  • You will be able to see the data descriptions and documentation without an account, but you will need to register with HRS to access the data.
  • User note: This is a new data downloads system as of September 1st, 2020. If you have an account on the old system but have not created a new account since September 1st, 2020, you will need to create a new account. You can use the same email address as your previous account. (You will not need to create a new account if you have used this system to apply for or manage an HRS Restricted Data Agreement since November 2019.)
  • Once your account is active and you have logged in, you will be able to see the data download links for each RAND HRS data product (and other public HRS data products).

Available files include 1994, 1995, and biennially 1996-2020. These can easily be used with the current release of the RAND HRS Longitudinal File. For more detailed information, please see the following documents:

RAND HRS Exit/Post-Exit Interview and Finder Files Documentation Help Using RAND HRS Data Products

These documents provide information on what has been added to raw HRS data in these files, but they are not codebooks or questionnaires. The HRS Codebooks and Questionnaires may be found on the HRS website.

Helpful Resources

For more information, questions or comments please see our FAQ or email us at RANDHRSHelp@rand.org.

Before doing so, however, we kindly request that users first consult the documentation that accompanies our data products, as we have found that our responses often point users to specific sections of the documentation that provide further detail on the variables mentioned in the users’ queries.

In addition, we recommend that users become familiar with some of the information provided on the HRS website, such as the HRS questionnaires and codebooks for the key variables under study.

We have also found the concordance tool extremely useful to help find available variables across waves:

More resources for users