Testing racial and ethnic origin questions in the CPS supplement (ABSTRACT), Monthly Labor Review Online, Sep. 1996

Testing racial and ethnic origin questions in the CPS supplement

Clyde Tucker
Director, Behavioral Science Research Center

Brian Kojetin
Research Psychologist, Office of Survey Methods Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Results show that combining race and Hispanic origin questions might decrease counts of Hispanics, and including a multiracial category might decrease counts of American Indians and Alaska Natives. This article describes the results of a May 1995 CPS supplement that tested different questions to assess race and ethnic origin. Results from the supplement also are compared with race and ethnic tabulations from the CPS, which contains only the basic categories in the directive.

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