Connecting Correction Methods for Linkage Error in Capture-Recapture

Peter-Paul de Wolf (), Jan van der Laan () and Zult Daan ()
Additional contact information
Peter-Paul de Wolf: Statistics Netherlands, P.O.Box 24500, 2490 HA The Hague, The Netherlands.
Jan van der Laan: Statistics Netherlands, P.O.Box 24500, 2490 HA The Hague, The Netherlands.
Zult Daan: Statistics Netherlands, P.O.Box 24500, 2490 HA The Hague, The Netherlands.

Journal of Official Statistics, 2019, vol. 35, issue 3, 577-597

Abstract: A commonly known problem in population size estimation using registers, is that registers do not necessarily cover the whole population. This may be because they intend to cover part of the population (e.g., students), due to administrative delay or because part of the target population is not registered by default (e.g., illegal persons). One of the methods to estimate the population size in the presence of undercount is the capture-recapture method that combines the information of two or more samples. In the context of census estimation registers are used instead of samples. However, the method assumes that perfect linkage between the registers can be achieved. It is known that this assumption is often violated.In the setting of evaluating the population coverage of a census using a post-enumeration survey, a correction for linkage error was proposed. That correction was later generalized by relaxing some of the newly introduced conditions. However, the new correction method still implicitly assumed that the two registers are of equal size. We introduce a further generalization that includes both previously mentioned correction methods and at the same time deals with registers of different sizes. Specific parameter settings will correspond to the different correction methods. We show that the parameters of each method can be chosen such that the resulting estimates all equal the traditional Petersen estimate (1896) that would theoretically be obtained under truly perfect linkage.

Keywords: Population size estimator; undercoverage; probabilistic record linkage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/jos-2019-0024 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:offsta:v:35:y:2019:i:3:p:577-597:n:4

DOI: 10.2478/jos-2019-0024

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Official Statistics is currently edited by Annica Isaksson and Ingegerd Jansson

More articles in Journal of Official Statistics from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().