Enhanced demographic-economic data sets

Survey of Current Business, Nov, 1988 by Roger Herriot, Chester Bowie, Daniel Kasprzyk, Sheldon Haber

The DRC provides a new capability that we are experimenting with at the Bureau. Its goal is to improve access to data collected by the Census Bureau and, thus, to facilitate analysis and research. The initial activities of the DRC were concerned with assisting Census Bureau personnel with access to SIPP. Its long-term mission will expand to include the following activities: To create and manage enhanced data sets, to provide liaison between internal and external users for access to such data, and to review the outputs for confidentiality. The process for gaining access to DRC data by outside users has been sketched out by Cavanaugh (1987).

The Census Bureau is also exploring new ways to make the information content of enhanced data files publicly available. We are experimenting with new products that could substitute for the original microdata file in cases where the disclosure risk is great. One approach is microaggregation in which individual records are grouped according to specified criteria and responses are replaced with averages for the group (McGuckin and Nguyen 1988). This approach, which is operationally straightforward, has been suggested as a way to provide access to sensitive economic microdata (Govoni and Waite 1985). The primary objection to this approach is that the linking of "like" establishments is dependent on the grouping criteria.

Another aggregation approach that we are considering for more general application is the release of summary statistics, such as variance-covariance measures or correlation matrices of the data. Such files would contain all the information needed for linear regression analysis; they would also provide excellent confidentiality protection, since any given covariance matrix can be derived from an infinite number of data sets. The biggest disadvantage to this approach is that different users require different matrices, and a user may require new columns in a matrix as the analysis proceeds.

The Census Bureau confidentiality staff is also currently looking into microaggregation and data transformation as techniques to allow the release of economic microdata.

In conclusion, we hope that this paper will stimulate researchers to investigate new hypotheses and to reexamine old ones. Although the research suggests that the creation of such data sets is feasible, the Bureau will need to work with interested researchers to develop the required data for substantive analyses. We are taking the initial steps of restructuring the Center of Demographic Studies to support such activities and to continue research, but it will take a concerted effort by both producers and users to make the potential a reality.

References Burkhead, D., and Coder, J. (1985). "Gross Changes in Income Recipiency from the Survey of Income and Program Participation." Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section, American Statistical Association, 1985: 351-356. Cavanaugh, F. (1987). "SIPP as an Initiator of a Data Resource Center at the Census Bureau." Proceedings of the Statistical Computing Section, American Statistical Association, 1987: 232-237. Gates, G. (1988). "Census Bureau Microdata: How to Provide Useful Research Data While Protecting the Anonymity of Respondents." Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section, American Statistical Association. Forthcoming. Govoni, J. and Waite, P.J. (1985). "Development of a Public Use File for Manufacturing." Paper presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings, American Statistical Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 1985. Griffith, J. and Kasprzyk, D. (1980). "The Use of Administrative Records in the Survey of Income and Program Participation." Case study in Report on Statistical Uses of Administrative Records. Statistical Policy Working Paper No. 6. Washington, DC: GPO. Haber, S. (1985). Applications of a Matched File Linking the Bureau of the Census Survey of Income and Program Participation and Economic Data. Survey of Income and Program Participation. Working Paper Series, No. 8502, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC: GPO. Herriot, R. (1983). "The Use of Administrative Records in Social and Demographic Statistics." Paper presented at the meeting of the International Statistics Institute, Madrid, Spain, 1983. Huggins, V. (1987). "Research Plans." Memorandum for the Record, Statistical Methods Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, April 13, 1987. McGuckin, R.H., and Nguyen, S.V. (1988). "Use of `Surrogate Files' to Conduct Economic Studies with Longitudinal Microdata." Paper presented at the 1988 Fourth Annual Research Conference, Arlington, VA, March 20-23, 1983. Kasprzyk, D. (1983). "Social Security Number Reporting, the Use of Administrative Records, and the Multiple Frame Design in the Income Survey Development Program." Technical, Conceptual, and Administrative Lessons of the Income Survey Development Program (ISDP). Edited by M. David. New York: Social Science Research Council, 1983: 123-141. Lazear, E. (1981). "Agency Earnings Profiles Productivity and Hours Restrictions." American Economic Review (September 1981): 606-620. Moore, J., and Kasprzyk, D. (1984). "Month-to-Month Recipiency Turnover in the ISDP." Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods, American Statistical Association, 1984: 726-731. Moore, J., and Marquis, K. (1987). "Using Administrative Record Data to Evaluate the Quality of Survey Estimates." Paper presented at the International Symposium on the Statistical Uses of Administration Records, Ottawa, Canada, November 23-25, 1987. Oi, W. (1983). "The Fixed Employment Costs of Specialized Labor." The Measurement of Labor Costs. Edited by Jack E. Triplett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, for the National Bureau of Economic Research. 1983: 63-116. Sater, D.K. (1986). "SSN Response Rates and Results of SSN Validation/Improvement Operation." Memorandum for Roger Herriot, Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, March 11, 1986. Scheuren, F. (1983). "Design and Estimation for Large Federal Surveys Using Administrative Records." Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods, American Statistical Association, 1983: 377-381. Scheuren, F., Herriot, R., Vogel, L., Vaughan, D., Kliss, B., Tyler, B., Cobleigh, C., and Alvey, W. (1975). Exact Match Research Using the March 1973 Current Population Survey-Initial States. Studies from Interagency Data Linkages, Report No. 4. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Social Security Administration, Office of Research and Statistics. Publication No. SSA 76-11750.