Package: PNADCperiods 0.1.2

PNADCperiods: Identify Reference Periods in Brazil's PNADC Survey Data

Identifies reference periods (months, fortnights, and weeks) in Brazil's quarterly PNADC (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios Continua) survey data and computes calibrated weights for sub-quarterly analysis. The core algorithm uses IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica) 'Parada Tecnica' (technical break) rules combined with respondent birthdates to determine which temporal period each survey observation refers to. Period identification follows a nested hierarchy enforced by construction: fortnights require months, weeks require fortnights. Achieves approximately 97% monthly determination rate with the full series (2012-2025). Strict fortnight and week rates are approximately 9% and 3% respectively, as they cannot leverage cross-quarter panel aggregation. Experimental strategies (probabilistic assignment and UPA (Primary Sampling Unit) aggregation) further improve these determination rates. The package provides adaptive hierarchical weight calibration (4/2/1 cell levels for month/fortnight/week) with period-specific smoothing to produce survey weights calibrated to SIDRA (Sistema IBGE de Recuperacao Automatica) population totals. Also includes a SIDRA mensalization module that converts 86+ official rolling quarter series from the IBGE SIDRA API (Application Programming Interface) into exact monthly estimates, without requiring access to microdata. Hecksher and Barbosa (2026) <https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/fra5u_v1>.

Authors:Rogerio Barbosa [aut, cre], Marcos Hecksher [aut]