Measuring the Marginalized

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." The principle expressed in this quote, often attributed to Peter Drucker, motivates recent interest in promoting data equity. Policy analysts and program administrators often strive to reach populations at the margins of society. However, these populations tend to be historically undercounted or difficult to identify in official data sources. Heightened interest in measuring the marginalized comes at a turbulent time for the federal statistical system. Statistics have traditionally been built on surveys, but there is growing reluctance to participate in federal surveys owing to multiple factors such as distrust of government and survey fatigue. The growth of statistics built on administrative data has helped increase the sophistication of public data consumers and sparked demand for more timely and more granular data. In response to these developments, the federal statistical system appears to be headed towards a future where surveys and administrative data are blended. An open question remains: how do we blend data sources to learn about difficult-to-study segments of the U.S. population? Work that documents gaps or exploits innovative data or methods to fill these gaps is critical for establishing the bedrock on which the next-generation statistical infrastructure will be built. This session features four papers highlighting the measurement of marginalized, difficult-to-study populations: older criminal-justice-involved adults, transgender individuals, children facing elevated mental health risks, and people experiencing homelessness. The first paper, "Criminal Justice Involvement and Well-Being in Old Age," uses data from the Criminal Justice Administrative Records Systems linked with survey and administrative data sources from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide the first evidence on the looming retirement crisis stemming from the aging generations of Americans who have been increasingly impacted by criminal justice policies like mass incarceration. (Authors: Jennifer Doleac, Jonathan Eggleston, William Gale, Michael Mueller-Smith, and Briana Sullivan) The second, "Transgender Earnings Gaps in the United States: Evidence from Administrative Data," provides the first evidence on transgender earnings in the U.S. using administrative data on over 55,000 individuals who changed their gender marker with the Social Security Administration and had gender-congruent first name changes on tax records. (Authors: Christopher S. Carpenter, Lucas Goodman, and Maxine J. Lee) The third, "Helping policymakers better predict the prevalence of children's mental health conditions: An analysis using restricted and publicly available health and education data," uses use publicly available, county- and school district-level datasets along with linked, health and education administrative from the State of Tennessee to predict the prevalence of mental health conditions among Tennessee children. (Authors: Liliane Nienstedt, Carolyn Heinrich, Carrie Fry, Melinda Buntin) The fourth, "Homelessness and the Persistence of Deprivation: Income, Employment, and Safety Net Participation," links the 2010 Census to numerous sources of tax and safety net data to provide the most detailed and accurate portrait to date of the level and persistence of material disadvantage faced by people experiencing homelessness in the U.S., including the first national estimates of income, employment, and safety net participation based on administrative data. (Authors: Bruce D. Meyer, Angela Wyse, Alexa Grunwaldt, Gillian Meyer, Derek Wu) Overall, this session aims to create a forum for discussion of shared challenges and opportunities in measuring these marginalized populations and for learning about difficult-to-study populations beyond those explicitly covered by this session.