1287.0 - Standards for Cash Income Statistics, 1997

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 19/12/1997

Page tools: Print

Print Page Print all pages in this product

Contents >> Principal Source of Cash Income >> Underlying Concepts

UNDERLYING CONCEPTS

NAME OF THE VARIABLE

4. The name of the variable is 'Principal source of cash income'. For reasons discussed in the 'Framework for standard cash income variables', cash income, rather than total income (including in kind receipts) is the preferred proxy measure of economic wellbeing. 'Principal source of cash income' is the full label for use in table titles, wafer titles, headings, stubs and text. However, it is sometimes shortened to 'Principal source of income' in ABS publications.

DEFINITION OF THE VARIABLE

5. The standard nominal and operational definition of 'Principal source of cash income' is:

that source from which a person, income unit, family or household receives the greatest amount of cash income.

6. In collections using the Short and Basic modules, the principal source is that source named by the respondent in the relevant question (optional in the Short module). In the Full module, used in the HES and SIHC, the principal source is derived by comparing amounts collected separately from the various sources.

Scope of the variable

7. 'Principal source of cash income' applies to all persons, income units, families and households reporting a positive value for 'Total cash income'.

SUPPORTING VARIABLES

8. In the HES and SIHC, 'Principal source of cash income' is derived from cash income data collected on a source by source basis. In surveys using the modules that elicit principal source, only those reporting cash income from more than one source are sequenced to the principal source question. For those reporting just one source, that is their principal source. Because derivation of 'Principal source of cash income' for income units, families and households also requires income values collected for 'Sources of cash income', it can only occur in surveys using the Full module.