New Area- and Population-based Geographic Crosswalks for U.S. Counties and Congressional Districts, 1790–2020

Andreas Ferrara, Patrick Testa and Liyang Zhou

No 32206, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In applied historical research, geographic units often differ in level of aggregation across datasets. One solution is to use crosswalks that associate factors located within one geographic unit to another, based on their relative areas. We develop an alternative approach based on relative populations, which accounts for heterogeneities in urbanization within counties. We construct population-based crosswalks for 1790 through 2020, which map county-level data across U.S. censuses, as well as from counties to congressional districts. Using official census data for congressional districts, we show that population-based weights outperform area-based ones in terms of similarity to official data.

JEL-codes: N01 N9 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
Note: DAE
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Published as Andreas Ferrara & Patrick A. Testa & Liyang Zhou, 2024. "New area- and population-based geographic crosswalks for U.S. counties and congressional districts, 1790–2020," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, vol 57(2), pages 67-79.

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Working Paper: New Area- and Population-based Geographic Crosswalks for U.S. Counties and Congressional Districts, 1790-2020 (2021)
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