Linking Historical Data Sources for Small Populations

Advances in computing and storage technologies have fostered the digitization and analysis of historical data sources. A growing body of research has utilized these new data to study the long-term and intergenerational effects of various policies, often linking data across time and different data sources. Small populations present specific challenges in this process for several reasons. First, they can be mis-classified by enumerators, for example when race is mis-reported. Historically, race categories were often overlooked or ignored in smaller or immigrant groups. Second, they may be omitted from public data sources because of higher mobility, or under-represented because of social or economic distress. Finally, unfamiliar names specific to minority populations are more likely to have been mis-spelled or anglicized, and changes of given names to common (anglicized) names by individuals themselves is not uncommon. 

To promote research on the latest approaches and technologies used to link individuals across data sources and families across generations, with a particular emphasis on analysis of historical data on small and minority racial or ethnic populations, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), with the generous support of the National Institute on Aging, will convene a research conference on March 21, 2025 in Cambridge, MA. The conference will be organized NBER research associates Achyuta Adhvaryu of the University of California, San Diego, Randall Akee of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Emilia Simeonova of Johns Hopkins University. 

The goal of the conference is to share innovations, best practices, and lessons learned for linking complicated, incomplete and/or partial data sources. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Studies on intergenerational mobility utilizing historical data sources
• Research on historical policies aimed at minority populations and their immediate and long-term and inter-generational effects

• Techniques for linking and digitizing historical data sources

   

Submissions of both empirical and theoretical research, and of papers and proposals by scholars who are early in their careers, who are not NBER affiliates, and who are from under-represented groups, are welcome. Please do not submit papers that have already been accepted for publication. To be considered for the conference, submissions must be uploaded by midnight (ET) on Thursday, November 21, 2024 

Authors chosen to present papers will be notified in December 2024. 

The NBER will cover the cost for up to two presenters per paper to attend the meeting; other co-authors are welcome to attend at their own expense. Please share this call for papers with others who may be interested in submitting a paper. Questions about this conference may be addressed to confer@nber.org.