Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
寻找约翰·史密斯：利用额外信息进行历史记录链接
Finding John Smith: Using Extra Information for Historical Record Linkage
摘要
We introduce a new rule-based linking method for historical Census records. We augment earlier algorithms based on name, age and place of birth (Abramitzky, Boustan, Eriksson, 2012, or “basic ABE”), with five matching characteristics – middle initial, county of residence, and spouse and parents’ names. Relative to basic ABE, ABE-Extra Information (“ABE-EI”) greatly increases match rates, improves accuracy and is similarly representative of the population on most attributes, with geographic mobility being one important exception. Relative to machine learning algorithms, ABE-EI has somewhat lower match rates, greater representativeness, and offers full replicability. We also create the first ABE-based links for women.
中文摘要
我们提出了一种基于规则的新方法，用于连接历史人口普查记录。我们在早期基于姓名、年龄和出生地的算法（Abramitzky, Boustan, Eriksson, 2012，或“基础ABE”）基础上，增加了五个匹配特征——中间名首字母、居住县、配偶及父母姓名。与基础ABE相比，ABE-额外信息（“ABE-EI”）显著提高了匹配率，提升了准确性，并且在大多数属性上对人口的代表性相似，但地理流动性是一个重要的例外。与机器学习算法相比，ABE-EI的匹配率略低，代表性更强，并提供了完全的可复制性。我们还首次为女性建立了基于ABE的链接。