The Policy Evaluation and Research Linkage Initiative (PERLI) is a four-year project funded by the National Science Foundation that will establish powerful new datasets of linked administrative microdata from California state and local government sources. One of those datasets is the Household Economics dataset.
The Household Economics data are being rolled out in phases. The backbone of the Household Economics dataset is the University of California Consumer Credit Panel (UC-CCP), which is a dataset of anonymized consumer credit information, created for the purpose of studying consumer financial well-being and identifying trends among California households related to credit, debt, income, and mobility. The UC-CCP is a longitudinal panel of approximately 40 million consumers starting in 2004 and continuing quarterly through the present. The sample comprises anonymized credit records of a nationally representative 2% sample of U.S. adult consumers with credit records along with a full sample of 100% of Californians with credit histories. The dataset also includes records from consumers that shared an address or an account (e.g., co-signers) with those in the sample. Data elements include demographic and geographic information about consumers, credit scores, and raw tradeline-level information about each loan or collections item, including payment history, credit limits and balances, and various information about the type and status of those tradelines, including collections and deferments.
We hope to link the UC-CCP with additional information that completes a more comprehensive financial balance sheet, such as income or earnings data. Please check back at this site for updates about potential additional linkages.
We are currently accepting data request applications for the Household Economics data. Scroll down for details on the approval process and how to submit an application.
Data overview
Credit data
The credit data come in four files: trades, inquiries, public records, and attributes.
The trades file is the most important and often used. It contains account-level information about each of the consumers “tradelines.” A tradeline could be a loan (e.g., mortgage, auto, or student loan), a revolving line of credit (e.g., credit card or HELOC), or a collection item (e.g., unpaid bill or defaulted loan). For each tradeline, there is information about the account (e.g., type of loan, type of lender, lender ID), information about the origination (e.g., open date, original loan amount), the current status of the account (e.g., current balance, next scheduled payment, current limit, current account condition and status), and the history of the account (e.g., 84 months of historical payment history, last actual payment amount).
The inquiries file includes all inquiries for credit conducted by the consumer (“hard pulls”), including the date of the inquiry and the type of credit to which it pertained.
The public records file mostly contains records of bankruptcies, including the type of bankruptcy and dates relevant to the bankruptcy proceeding.
The attributes file is at the person-quarter level, and mostly includes demographic information (covered below) and the credit score for the consumer in that quarter.
Demographics data
The data have person-level demographics that include the individual’s age (including month and year of birth), gender, and residential location, down to the census-block-level. More recent years of the data also include estimates of individual-level race/ethnicity that are constructed using the individual’s surname and address. In addition, the data include somewhat less reliable information on marital status, occupation (grouped into large codes), the number of adults and children in the household, and the tenure of the household.
Income/earnings data
In the future, we hope to link the credit information to data on income or earnings. Please check back on this page for updates about these linkages.
How to access the Household Economics data
We are currently accepting data request applications for the Household Economics data.
Applications will be reviewed at the end of each quarter. Deadlines are 12pm on the following dates.
- January 14th
- March 31st
- June 30th
- September 30th
Applications will undergo a two-stage review process: following an internal review, California Policy Lab will then present data requests to the data owners, who will have final approval. Following the application deadline, applicants can expect to be notified of an outcome within eight weeks.
If you have any questions about the dataset or the application process, please reach out to perli@capolicylab.org. To stay connected about PERLI, please subscribe to our updates list.