Decile cutpoints - inclusive or not?

This is a problem I've had to deal with a lot. Whether it's percentile ranges or intervals to be used in a discrete distribution based on dollar amounts or some other "continuous" variable, here's how I proceed:
1. determine the level of accuracy needed. I your example, it's whole dollar amounts. However, there are cases in which intervals could be defined to the tenths, hundredths, or even thousandths level of accuracy.
2. try to lay out the intervals as "half open", meaning that the bottom amount is in the interval, but the top amount is not included. The actual description of the interval could be just like the one Beth gave, "100-199", but this would really represent the half open interval [100,200). This may not always be possible. For example, on a PUMS file, the value $1 may have a special meaning and may need to be its own single-value interval.
3. Make sure every value that is possible on the underlying file is accounted for; i.e., it appears in one and only one interval.
4. When top-coding is used for the variable in the microdata file, the final interval must include some phrase like "and above", such as "$1,000,000 and above". Similar issue for bottom-coded values.

I hope this helps.

Doug

This is a problem I've had to deal with a lot. Whether it's percentile ranges or intervals to be used in a discrete distribution based on dollar amounts or some other "continuous" variable, here's how I proceed:
1. determine the level of accuracy needed. I your example, it's whole dollar amounts. However, there are cases in which intervals could be defined to the tenths, hundredths, or even thousandths level of accuracy.
2. try to lay out the intervals as "half open", meaning that the bottom amount is in the interval, but the top amount is not included. The actual description of the interval could be just like the one Beth gave, "100-199", but this would really represent the half open interval [100,200). This may not always be possible. For example, on a PUMS file, the value $1 may have a special meaning and may need to be its own single-value interval.
3. Make sure every value that is possible on the underlying file is accounted for; i.e., it appears in one and only one interval.
4. When top-coding is used for the variable in the microdata file, the final interval must include some phrase like "and above", such as "$1,000,000 and above". Similar issue for bottom-coded values.

I hope this helps.

Doug