Spatial Variation in the Quality of American Community Survey Estimates.

Social science research, public and private sector decisions, and allocations of federal resources often rely on data from the American Community Survey (ACS). However, this critical data source has high uncertainty in some of its most frequently used estimates. Using 2006-2010 ACS median household...

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Publicado en:Demography (Springer Nature) Vol. 53; no. 5; pp. 1535 - 1555
Autores principales: Folch, David, Arribas-Bel, Daniel, Koschinsky, Julia, Spielman, Seth, Folch, David C, Spielman, Seth E
Formato: journal article
Publicado: Springer Nature Oct2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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          Folch, David
          Arribas-Bel, Daniel
          Koschinsky, Julia
          Spielman, Seth
          Folch, David C
          Spielman, Seth E
        affil:
          Department of Geography , Florida State University , Tallahassee USA
          Department of Geography and Planning , University of Liverpool , Liverpool UK
          Center for Spatial Data Science , University of Chicago , Chicago USA
          Department of Geography , University of Colorado at Boulder , Boulder USA
          Department of Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
          Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
      su:
        United States
        Social surveys
        Income
        Socioeconomic factors
        Cross-sectional method
        Spatial variation
        Quality control
        Research management
        Social statistics
        Experimental design
        Statistics
      sug:
        subj:
          Social surveys
          Income
          Socioeconomic factors
          Cross-sectional method
          United States
          Spatial variation
          Quality control
          Research management
          Social statistics
          Experimental design
          Statistics
      keyword:
        American Community Survey
        Data uncertainty
        Income estimates
        Margin of error
        Spatial analysis
        American Community Survey
        Data uncertainty
        Income estimates
        Margin of error
        Spatial analysis
      ab: Social science research, public and private sector decisions, and allocations of federal resources often rely on data from the American Community Survey (ACS). However, this critical data source has high uncertainty in some of its most frequently used estimates. Using 2006-2010 ACS median household income estimates at the census tract scale as a test case, we explore spatial and nonspatial patterns in ACS estimate quality. We find that spatial patterns of uncertainty in the northern United States differ from those in the southern United States, and they are also different in suburbs than in urban cores. In both cases, uncertainty is lower in the former than the latter. In addition, uncertainty is higher in areas with lower incomes. We use a series of multivariate spatial regression models to describe the patterns of association between uncertainty in estimates and economic, demographic, and geographic factors, controlling for the number of responses. We find that these demographic and geographic patterns in estimate quality persist even after we account for the number of responses. Our results indicate that data quality varies across places, making cross-sectional analysis both within and across regions less reliable. Finally, we present advice for data users and potential solutions to the challenges identified.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: journal article
      src: R
    language: English
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