Cross-Wave Master ID File

The Master ID File includes information from 2008. The purpose of the HRS Master ID file is to simplify the process of merging HRS files. The HRS uses two ID variables in combination to uniquely identify individuals: HHID and PN. Ideally, these would be fixed at entry into the study and never need to be changed. They would be identical for a single individual in every wave and in the Tracker file. In practice, a small but non-negligible number of individuals have had changes in their HHID or PN variables. Therefore this file creates wave-specific HHID and PN numbers that match identically to IDs on each wave, paired with the current tracker HHID and PN.