Chapin Hall

Record Linkage among Human Services Data Sources

These three papers comprise a body of research into technical best practices for linking human services data sources to facilitate research and analyses on family well-being. This research was conducted by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago in partnership with the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy as an activity of the Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center.

Using and Linking Administrative Datasets for Family Self-Sufficiency Programs draws from a series of practitioner interviews to summarize the characteristics of family self-sufficiency datasets relevant to linking those datasets or using the integrated data for research and analysis.

Record Linkage Innovations for the Human Services is based on a literature review of record linkage methodologies. This report highlights key areas of innovation in record linkage methodology with ramification for linking human services data sources.

Recommendations for Ensuring the Quality of Linked Human Services Data Sources summarizes threats to the quality of linked human services data with the potential to undermine family self-sufficiency analyses and the development of evidence-based policy. The authors provide early recommendations to address these threats.