Preliminary Research Investigating the Use of Administrative Records in the American Community Survey (ACS)

• Activity Number: 157 - Big Survey Meets Big Data: Integrating Administrative Data into the American Community Survey
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, July 29, 2019 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Nikolas Pharris-Ciurej*
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Administrative Records; Survey methods; Survey Items; Big Data

Abstract

I examine the utility of third-party county and municipal administrative property tax data (administrative data) as a candidate data source for item supplementation or replacement for 13 ACS housing topics. To assess the usefulness of the administrative data we develop and employ 12 guiding principles (e.g. coverage, quality, agreement, conceptual alignment) for administrative record evaluation. The analysis reveals that the administrative data provides useful information for four of the housing topics, but it proved less useful for the remaining nine. Two of the impediments to using the administrative data with the ACS are low levels coverage of the ACS sample by the administrative data and a lack of conceptual alignment between the administrative data and the ACS housing topics. However, for the property value, real estate tax, year built, and acreage topics the administrative data provides useful information for item supplementation due to high levels of coverage, response agreement, and conceptual alignment. For example, for the acreage item, administrative data provide information for 95% of ACS households and the acreage values agree for 92% of records in the linked sample.