Prepare income target variable for weighting

Creates a standardized household income target variable for household-level weighting and expansion, using either PUMS or survey input. Use when preparing income targets for synthetic population or survey analysis.

Usage

prep_target_income(
  h_data,
  p_data,
  target_name = "h_income",
  codebook,
  settings
)

Arguments

h_data

data.table. Household-level input. Required columns:

• For PUMS: must include SERIALNO and income column as specified in settings.

• For survey: must include income column as specified in settings. Rows: one per household. Modified by reference: no (returns copy).

p_data

data.table. Person-level input (not used, included for interface consistency).

target_name

character(1). Name of the target variable to create (default: "h_income").

codebook

data.table. Codebook for variable mapping; must include income value and label columns.

settings

list. Project settings; must include targets[[target_name]] with levels, pums_input, and survey_input.

Value

data.table. Copy of household-level input with new target variable column (target_name).

• Columns: all original plus target_name (character)

• Values: standardized income bins

• Row order preserved

Details

• Detects input type (PUMS vs. survey) by presence of SERIALNO column in h_data.

• If no target levels specified, uses codebook to infer income bins.

• Applies cut_and_label to bin income into target levels.

• Renames output column to target_name (default: h_income).

• Returns a copy of the input data.table with the new target variable.

• Error handling: stops if empty income bins are detected.

Settings

• targets[["h_income"]] (direct): must include levels, pums_input, and survey_input.

See also

get_target_methods, prep_target_h_size, prep_target_workers

Other target preparation: get_target_methods(), prep_target_adults(), prep_target_age(), prep_target_commutemode(), prep_target_cross(), prep_target_edulevel(), prep_target_employment(), prep_target_ethnicity(), prep_target_gender(), prep_target_h_size(), prep_target_kids(), prep_target_race(), prep_target_univstudent(), prep_target_vehicles(), prep_target_workers(), prep_transit_target(), prepare_targets(), run_tabulate_method()

Examples

## Not run:
prep_target_income(h_data, p_data, target_name = "h_income", codebook, settings)
#> Error: object 'h_data' not found
## End(Not run)