HNDS-I: Linked Administrative Data in Social Services

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Linkage Initiative for Policy Evaluation and Research (LIPER) will create unique databases to support innovative social science research. The new databases will support new understandings of how households use debt and assets to weather volatility and make longterm decisions; better diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of the social safety net and its efficacy in supporting self-sufficiency; and new insights into the impacts of the full suite of government programs and services on a variety of outcomes, from health to housing stability to justice involvement. The databases will use administrative microdata, which is person-level data that is collected by state and local agencies in the process of providing services. Government is already collecting these data, and the project will unlock their value for understanding population needs and the efficacy of policies in meeting these needs. The LIPER databases will be particularly valuable for inclusive research involving a wide range of underrepresented groups and for understanding the complex dynamics of racial and economic equity. Access to the LIPER databases will allow investigators across a wide range of social science fields to generate accurate and actionable insights leading to more informed public policy and, ultimately, to improved individual well-being. The LIPER databases will each link data from multiple agencies. Linked data of this type is increasingly important for breakthrough research. Yet in the United States, legal and technical barriers often prevent it from being used by researchers. LIPER will develop data resources, including linkages across previously separate data systems; build mechanisms and infrastructure to support wide access of researchers to the data for a range of projects, while preserving privacy and security; and provide opportunities for the next generation of social science researchers to build their research programs with LIPER data resources. It will build on existing relationships that the LIPER project researchers have with California agencies and will be housed within the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley and UCLA, which is dedicated to using data driven insights to address urgent social problems. LIPER will be built within a secure computer infrastructure that allows remote access for approved researchers. The LIPER website will allow researchers to explore public metadata and the team will review applications for researchers to access the data in a streamlined fashion. The team will also innovate on methods for linking data without access to personally identifiable information. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.