Record linkage in the Cape of Good Hope Panel
(2020) In Historical Methods 53(2). p.112-129- Abstract
In this article, we describe the record linkage procedure to create a panel from Cape Colony census returns, or opgaafrolle, for 1787–1828, a dataset of 42,354 household-level observations. Based on a subset of manually linked records, we first evaluate statistical models and deterministic algorithms to best identify and match households over time. By using household-level characteristics in the linking process and near-annual data, we are able to create high-quality links for 84% of the dataset. We compare basic analyses on the linked panel dataset to the original cross-sectional data, evaluate the feasibility of the strategy when linking to supplementary sources, and discuss the scalability of our approach to the full Cape panel.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8fa82bee-43d2-4994-a3bd-eba9935092ec
- author
- Rijpma, Auke ; Cilliers, Jeanne LU and Fourie, Johan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Census, machine learning, micro-data, panel data, record linkage, South Africa
- in
- Historical Methods
- volume
- 53
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 18 pages
- publisher
- Heldref Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85061778651
- ISSN
- 0161-5440
- DOI
- 10.1080/01615440.2018.1517030
- project
- The Cape of the Good Hope Panel: Long-term studies of growth, inequality and labour coercion in the global south
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8fa82bee-43d2-4994-a3bd-eba9935092ec
- date added to LUP
- 2019-03-04 11:59:15
- date last changed
- 2022-04-25 21:26:33
@article{8fa82bee-43d2-4994-a3bd-eba9935092ec,
abstract = {{<p>In this article, we describe the record linkage procedure to create a panel from Cape Colony census returns, or opgaafrolle, for 1787–1828, a dataset of 42,354 household-level observations. Based on a subset of manually linked records, we first evaluate statistical models and deterministic algorithms to best identify and match households over time. By using household-level characteristics in the linking process and near-annual data, we are able to create high-quality links for 84% of the dataset. We compare basic analyses on the linked panel dataset to the original cross-sectional data, evaluate the feasibility of the strategy when linking to supplementary sources, and discuss the scalability of our approach to the full Cape panel.</p>}},
author = {{Rijpma, Auke and Cilliers, Jeanne and Fourie, Johan}},
issn = {{0161-5440}},
keywords = {{Census; machine learning; micro-data; panel data; record linkage; South Africa}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{112--129}},
publisher = {{Heldref Publications}},
series = {{Historical Methods}},
title = {{Record linkage in the Cape of Good Hope Panel}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2018.1517030}},
doi = {{10.1080/01615440.2018.1517030}},
volume = {{53}},
year = {{2020}},
}