Map Intersection Based Merging Schemes for Administrative Data Sources and an Application to Germany

33 Pages Posted: 26 Apr 2005 Last revised: 18 Aug 2008

See all articles by Melanie Arntz

Melanie Arntz

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Ralf A. Wilke

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Economics; Center for European Economic Research (ZEW); Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

In many situations the applied researcher wants to combine different data sources without knowing the exact link and merging rule. This paper considers different interpolation methods for interpolating attributes from German labor office districts to German counties and vice versa. In particular, we apply dasymetric weighting as an alternative to simple area weighting both of which are based on estimated intersection areas. Since these estimates can be spurious, our theoretical framework extends the well-known Goodchild and Lam (1980) approach to the presence of measurement error in the underlying maps. We also present conditions under which the choice of interpolation method does not matter and confirm the theoretical results with a simulation study. Our application to German administrative data suggests robustness of estimation results of interpolated attributes with respect to the choice of interpolation method. We deliver weighting matrices for regional data sources of the two largest German data producers.

Keywords: Map intersection, administrative data, merging schemes, estimation

JEL Classification: C49, C89, R10

Suggested Citation

Arntz, Melanie and Wilke, Ralf A., Map Intersection Based Merging Schemes for Administrative Data Sources and an Application to Germany (2005). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 05-020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=706986 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.706986

Melanie Arntz

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Ralf A. Wilke (Contact Author)

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Economics ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg C, DK - 2000
Denmark

Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB) ( email )

Regensburger Str. 104
Nuremberg, 90478
Germany

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