Recent iir_cpl_whitepapers items

Connecting Families to Benefits Using Linked Data: a Toolkit

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Policymakers rely heavily on the tax system to distribute direct payments to lowincome families. Anti-poverty tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, the advanced Child Tax Credits, and the federal stimulus payments combined to keep millions of Americans out of poverty during the pandemic. Such credits have strong potential to continue to reduce poverty.

These credits only work, of course, if eligible families receive them. To do so, they must file a tax return. But many low-income families who are at or below the federal poverty level are not legally required to file taxes. Policymakers need a better understanding of how many low-income families don’t file taxes (and therefore miss out on these valuable credits) in order to address this problem.

While state and federal tax agencies know who files taxes, they have very little information on the families who do not file, especially those below the poverty level with little or no earnings. State and local...

Linking Administrative Data: Strategies and Methods

Mon, 1 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We review the linking of datasets that contain identifying information (e.g., names, birthdates) but not unique common identifiers for each individual. We discuss strategies for identifying matches in three families: rules-based matching, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning. These vary in the ways that they combine human knowledge with computing power. We define different measures of accuracy and explore the performance of common algorithms in test data.

Our goal is to de-mystify data linking for non-technical readers. We attempt to explain the criteria that should inform the choice of linking methods, and the decisions that need to be made to implement them.

Additional resources, including code and public data referenced on pp. 26-34 is available at: https://github.com/californiapolicylab/data-linking.

A Roadmap for Linking Administrative Data in California

Mon, 1 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

California needs a centralized authority for linking the state’s administrative data. Legislators are focusing on new datasets and data systems, which is a step in the right direction. But what the state truly needs is a new office with a clear mandate to link the state’s core data assets, a clear set of tools for doing so, and governance that ensures data are used to inform program improvement. Think of it as the state’s Census Bureau – or “Statistics California.”

We propose here a roadmap toward that goal: (1) create a new, independent office with the mandate and expertise to link data across siloes, (2) sequence the linkage process by starting with education and expanding outward, and (3) establish streamlined governance that makes data available to improve state policies and programs.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives...