Full Citation

Title: Unraveling Geographic Complexities in the Current Population Survey

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2021

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.18128/IPUMS2021-02

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Abstract: The Current Population Survey (CPS) is the nation's primary source of information on labor force participation and is typically used to generate national-and state-level estimates for a wide variety of indicators. Scientists are increasingly interested in linking contextual data measured over finer-grained geographies to the CPS. Geographic units such as metropolitan areas, cities, and counties are identified in the CPS, but a close examination reveals counties with large populations absent from the data while counties with smaller populations in the same metropolitan area are identified. We describe the process used to assign geographic identifiers to respondents and how that process leads to counties with large population being left off. We also describe strategies to recover or assign county identifiers for respondents who are missing them. These strategies consider the complex spatial relationships among metropolitan areas, cities, and counties.

Url: https://assets.ipums.org/_files/ipums/working_papers/ipums_wp_2021-02.pdf

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Authors: Van Riper, David; Flood, Sarah; Roberts, Finn

Series Title: IPUMS Working Papers

Publication Number: 2021-02

Institution: IPUMS

Pages: 2-24

Publisher Location:

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Methodology and Data Collection

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