Panel Attrition from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Household Income, Marital Status, and Mortality

This analysis is concerned with the determinants of panel attrition from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and with its consequences for estimation of dynamic behavioral models which exploit the panel or longitudinal information-household income dynamics, marriage formation and dissolution, and adult mortality risk. We develop and estimate joint models of attrition and one or more of these substantive processes, and allow for correlation across the equations through random effects. Although we find evidence of significant selectivity in attrition behavior, the biases that are introduced by ignoring selective attrition are very mild.