Statistical Coherence of Primary Schooling in Population Census Microdata: IPUMS-International Integrated Samples Compared for Fifteen African Countries

Type Journal Article - Etude de la Population Africaine
Title Statistical Coherence of Primary Schooling in Population Census Microdata: IPUMS-International Integrated Samples Compared for Fifteen African Countries
Author(s)
Volume 29
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 1570
URL http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/ipums_statistical_coherence_aps_20150417.pdf
Abstract
The IPUMS-International project, now in its fifteenth year, integrates and disseminates population microdata for twenty-two African countries (82 countries world-wide) and the number continues to increase as more National Statistical Offices cooperate with the initiative. Statistical quality is a serious concern both for the producers of the microdata as well as the researchers who use them. This paper applies the intra-cohort comparison method to pairs of integrated (harmonized) samples for fifteen African countries to assess statistical coherence using as a benchmark the proportion completing primary school by single years of birth. Samples for six countries show near perfect coherence (R2 > .9, and regression coefficients ~1.0 +/-<0.08). For a second group of five countries, coefficients are only slightly larger (R2 > 0.6 <0.9). Large deviations from 1.0 characterize samples for only four countries. On the whole, the results suggest that samples for the fifteen countries have considerable utility for socio-demographic analysis.

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