Full Citation

Title: Accounting for ZIP Code Boundary Changes, 1990 ‐ 2010

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: Every year the US Postal Service makes hundreds of changes to ZIP Code boundaries: dissolving existing ZIP Codes, establishing new ones, or realigning the boundaries between established ZIP Codes. These changes do not occur randomly, but are concentrated in areas experiencing both population collapse and rapid population growth. Failing to account for these boundary changes over time, then, introduces systematic measurement error in identifying the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of geographic areas. In this paper, we describe our creation of a data tool that will allow researchers to account for changes in ZIP Code boundaries between 1990 and 2010. This enables the linkage of consistent geographic units, along with their social, economic, and demographic characteristics, over time. We believe that the existence of this data tool will allow more researchers to more effectively incorporate ZIP Codes into their research, as cases, as contextual factors for fixed effects analyses using micro‐level observations as cases, or as the “Level 2” or macro level in multilevel models.

Url: https://paa.confex.com/paa/2016/mediafile/ExtendedAbstract/Paper8064/PAA_2016_Draft2_9.24.2015.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Bailey, Amy, K; Helmuth, Allison, S

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Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Housing and Segregation

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