Historical Methods最新文献

In this article, the authors describe a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center (MPC), the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Archives and Records Administration to restore the lost data from the 1960 Census. The data survived on refrigerated microfilm in a cave in Lenexa, Kansas. The MPC is now converting the data to usable form. Once the restored data are processed, the authors intend to develop three new data sources based on the 1960 census. These data will replace the most inadequate sample in the series of public-use census microdata spanning the years from 1850 to 2000, extend the chronological scope of the public census summary files, and provide a powerful new resource for the Census Bureau and its Research Data Centers.

The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) provides aggregate data and microdata that have been integrated and harmonized to maximize crosstemporal and cross-spatial comparability. All MPC data products are distributed free of charge through an interactive Web interface that enables users to limit the data and metadata being analyzed to samples and variables of interest to their research. In this article, the authors describe the integrated databases available from the MPC, report on recent additions and enhancements to these data sets, and summarize new online tools and resources that help users to analyze the data over time. They conclude with a description of the MPC's newest and largest infrastructure project to date: a global population and environment data network.

In this article, the authors describe a new data infrastructure project being developed at the Minnesota Population Center. The Integrated Spatio-Temporal Aggregate Data Series (ISTADS) will make it easier for researchers to use publicly available aggregate data for the United States over a time span that covers virtually the entire life of the nation: 1790-2012. In addition to facilitating access and ease of use, ISTADS will facilitate the use of these various data sets in mapping and spatial analysis.

The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) has released linked datasets through its NAPP and IPUMS projects, making them readily accessible to researchers. Prior to the availability of complete count census microdata from the MPC, researchers applied various forms of record-linking software. This essay describes the techniques used in the MPC's linking program and briefly compares this technique with those used by other researchers. The key feature of the MPC linking method is the construction of cumulative name similarity scores, based on approximately 2.5 billion record comparisons; we also use support vector mechanics to classify potential links. This article explains modifications made for the final linked datasets and includes a discussion of the role of weighting variables when using linked data.

The North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP) is a massive database of historical census microdata from European and North American countries. The backbone of the project is the unique collection of completely digitized censuses providing information on the entire enumerated populations of each country. In addition, for some countries, the NAPP includes sample data from surrounding census years. In this article, the authors provide a brief history of the project, describe their progress to data and plans for the future, and discuss some potential implications of this unique data resource for social and economic research.

This article constructs new life tables for the white population of the United States in each decade between 1790 and 1900. Drawing from several recent studies, it suggests best estimates of life expectancy at age 20 for each decade. These estimates are fitted to new standards derived from the 1900-02 rural and 1900-02 overall DRA life tables using a two-parameter logit model with fixed slope. The resulting decennial life tables more accurately represent sex-and age-specific mortality rates while capturing known mortality trends.