Follow up to ERSCOR50 question

Jeff:

Thanks for the quick reply. The tab you suggested has the following:

ERSCOR50 used year specific data to calculate scores for 1950 onward. However as the earnings and education data were not available for pre-1950 censuses, the 1950’s ERSCOR50 scores are assigned for cases in pre-1950 censuses.

What does “assigned” mean for pre-1950? I am looking at the var in the 1850-1880 linked sample and trying to understand how it was derived.

Do they use 1950 data for each occupation and then assign that to pre-1950 years?

Yes, you are correct. For pre-1950 samples values of ERSCOR50 are based on earnings data from the 1950 sample. Therefore, these scores do not vary between occupations in years prior to 1950. More information on the construction of these variables is available here.