ANN ARBOR—The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) has been named one of 50 projects funded by the National Science Foundation over the last half-century that have transformed the way Americans live, think, and work. It is the only social science project on the official “Nifty Fifty” list of inventions and discoveries, announced this month as part of the foundation’s golden anniversary celebration (www.nsfoutreach.org). Other projects selected for the Nifty Fifty include the Internet, Doppler Radar, Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology, and DNA fingerprinting.

Started in 1968, the PSID is directed by economist Frank Stafford, a senior research scientist at ISR, the world’s largest academic survey and research organization. It is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. men, women, and children, and the families in which they reside. Unique in combining a nationally representative sample, repeated interviews with the same individuals for a significant period of time, and a self-regenerating sample design, the PSID now contains information about more than 40,000 people covering as much as 33 years of their lives.

One of the most widely used social science data sets in the world, the PSID has contributed to the understanding of a wide range of economic, demographic, sociological and psychological behaviors. These include intergenerational relations, teen childbearing, marriage, divorce, living arrangements, savings and wealth. A new view of poverty has resulted from analysis of PSID data, which show that poverty is both more pervasive and less persistent than previously believed.

New directions for the study include research on information technology for home, work, and school; the impact of family, school and community on child development; and immigrant adaptation.

Established in 1948, the Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world’s oldest survey research organizations, and a world leader in the development and application of social science methodology. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, the National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa. Visit the ISR Web site at www.isr.umich.edu for more information.

Panel Study of Income DynamicsSurvey of Consumer Attitudes