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The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of existing methods and techniques making use of personal identifiers to support record linkage. Record linkage can be loosely defined as a methodology for manipulating and / or transforming personal identifiers from individual data records from one or more operational databases and subsequently attempting to match these personal identifiers to create a composite record about an individual. Record linkage is not intended to uniquely identify individuals for operational purposes; however, it does provide probabilistic matches of varying degrees of reliability for use in statistical reporting. Techniques employed in record linkage may also be of use for investigative purposes to help narrow the field of search against existing databases when some form of personal identification information exists.

In 1999, as part of its General Social Survey program, Statistics Canada conducted a survey on victimization and public perceptions of crime and the justice system. It was the third time that the General Social Survey (GSS) had examined victimization - previous surveys were conducted in 1993 and 1988.

For the 1999 survey, interviews were conducted by telephone with approximately 26,000 people, aged 15 and older, living in the 10 provinces. Respondents were asked for their opinions concerning the level of crime in their neighbourhood, their fear of crime and their views concerning the performance of the justice system. They were also asked about their attitudes toward sentencing adult and young offenders. Respondents were randomly presented with one of four hypothetical situations for which they were asked to choose "prison" or "non-prison". Respondents who selected prison sentences were given a follow-up question that asked them whether a sentence of one year of probation and 200 hours of community work was an acceptable alternative to the prison sentence.

This Juristat examines public attitudes toward sentencing adult and young offenders. It also analyzes public attitudes toward four sectors of the justice system including, the police, the criminal courts, the prison and parole systems.

This article examines whether the education levels of graduates surpass the needs of employers, and to what extent.

This article provides an analysis of the employment and earnings patterns of recent postsecondary graduates, based on three waves of the National Graduates Surveys.

This Juristat outlines the characteristics of criminal harassment incidents as well as the characteristics of the accused and victim for 1999, and identifies trends over the past five years. (Trend data are only available for the five-year period from 1995 to 1999.) This Juristat updates a similar Juristat written in 1996 using information collected from police forces and adult criminal courts to review the charges laid and sentences imposed for cases involving criminal harassment.

There are many different types of stalkers. However, most victims of criminal harassment know their accused quite well and, in many instances, the stalker and victim were involved in a previous relationship.

Statistics Canada publishes several measures of farm income, each produced for a different purpose. This bulletin describes the concepts behind these different measures, the methods by which the measures are constructed, and the uses for which they were designed.

Canada's ports handled a record 382.0 million tonnes (Mt.) of cargo in 1999 and a record of 2.2 million TEURS (twenty-foot-equivalent units) of containers.

Third quarter 1999 operating ratios for top carriers improved by one point over the same period one year earlier to 0.93 but were unchanged in the fourth quarter (0.94). Average revenue per carrier grew by 3% in the third quarter and 4% in the fourth quarter.

This study looks at those who voluntarily work part time, as well as their reasons for doing so, their levels of work-related stress, and their job characteristics.

This Bulletin provides recent information on the performance and funding of Federal Government Expenditures on Scientific Activities, 2000-2001. The statistics presented are derived from the survey of the science and technology (S&T) activities of Federal departments and agencies. According to international convention, S&T is divided into two fields; Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE) and Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). These fields of science are further divided into Research and Development (R&D) and Related Scientific Activities (RSA).

This publication presents a timely picture of employment, earnings and hours which is vital for Canada's businesses and governments for planning and decision-making purposes. The tabulations focus on annual labour market information and historical data series. The major economic variables for over 280 industries are provided at the national and provincial/territorial level. The publication includes notes on the concepts and methods of the monthly survey. The "Help-Wanted index 1981-1999 supplement" is included in this publication.

Reduced barriers to trade across North America and increasingly mobile populations have created a heightened need for information on transportation services and infrastructure. North American transportation highlights provides key summary statistics on trade and travel, safety, and energy use of transportation in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Statistical tables and charts contained within the report are accompanied by data sources and notes describing data categories and definitions relating to each country.

The report was developed under the framework of the North American Transportation Statistics Interchange representing the transportation and statistical agencies of Mexico, the United States and Canada. Participating agencies include the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, the Instituto Mexicano del Transporte, and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática from México; the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the Census Bureau from the United States; Statistics Canada and Transport Canada. It was produced and released by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) in December 1999 and is part of more comprehensive report, North American transportation in figures (catalogue no. 50-501-XIE) released in October 2000.

There is a diversity of manufacturing activity that contributes to Canada's regional economies. The spatial distribution of these activities is far from symmetrical, with most activity being concentrated within the Québec City - Windsor corridor. In 1997, the provinces of Ontario and Québec accounted for approximately 76% of Canada's value of shipments. Using data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures, two maps have been created to highlight the predominant manufacturing activity by census division in 1983 and 1997. Employing advanced mapping software, it is possible to accurately make maps which show the correspondence between manufacturing activity and the ecumene. The brief discussion herein will help readers to interpret the enclosed maps.

The Manufacturing, Construction and Energy Division is engaged in finding alternatives to presenting data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures using advanced mapping technology. This technology enables us to present a coherent spatial representation of manufacturing activity across Canada. The interactive map presents provincial principle statistics and highlights, with a view to disseminating knowledge and stimulating discussion.

This bulletin is a preliminary release of 1998 annual data for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry (including PCS and ESMR service providers) with accompanying data from 1995.

The most recent issue contains "Food producers maintain expansion" by Peter Zylstra. Food commodity processors are engaged in a multitude of manufacturing activities. The aggregate performance of these is the subject of this article. Common influences on all processing industries that make up the Food Industries Major Group are examined, while specific ones that impact some and not others are also discussed. Growth in food industries has always been a function of population growth. In addition, health considerations and new product development are important factors. The summary of recent developments is based on results of the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures. Other sources are also used for industry analysis as well as for the provision of industry environment and economic background.

This article is divided into three sections. Section 1 describes results for small for-hire carriers; section 2 contains data for owner operations; and section 3 provides a general discussion of Annual Motor Carriers of Freight survey data quality.

This study presents 1997/1998 LFS earnings estimates for about 85,000 drivers employed by for-hire carriers (companies whose principal business is transportation of goods for a fee) in comparison to drivers employed in private trucking (companies that transport their freight by truck, but whose principal business activity is not trucking) and the overall labour force. Wages and earnings estimated presented in this study exclude owner operators and self-employed workers.

This publication shows expenditures, by industry, for the various types of packaging materials.

The cable and other program distribution industry has reported revenues of $3.1 billion in 1998, a 10.0% increase over 1997. This relatively strong growth is due in large part to the fast growing non-basic services segment. While revenue from basic services grew moderately (2.1%) revenue from non-basic and other services increased by 29.0%.

Richard Platek, the founding Chairman, who remained at the helm of the Journal until 1987, has provided an excellent overview of the gradual evolution of the Journal from a modest divisional to a respected departmental publication and then to an international publication of repute.

Dr. Fellegi considers the challenges facing government statistical agencies and strategies to prepare for these challenges. He first describes the environment of changing information needs and the social, economic and technological developments driving this change. He goes on to describe both internal and external elements of a strategy to meet these evolving needs. Internally, a flexible capacity for survey taking and information gathering must be developed. Externally, contacts must be developed to ensure continuing relevance of statistical programs while maintaining non-political objectivity.

Leslie Kish describes the challenges and opportunities of combining data from surveys of different populations. Examples include multinational surveys where the data from surveys of several countries are combined for comparison and analysis, as well as cumulated periodic surveys of the "same" population. He also compares and contrasts the combining of surveys with the combining of experiments.

In 1999 Statistics Sweden outlined a proposal for improved quality within the European Statistical System (ESS). The ESS comprises Eurostat and National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) associated with Eurostat. ... Basically Statistics Sweden proposed the creation of a LEG [Leadership Expert Group] on Quality].

In his paper Fritz Scheuren considers the possible uses of administrative records to enhance and improve population censuses. After reviewing previous uses of administrative records in an international context, he puts forward several proposals for research and development towards increased use of administrative records in the American statistical system.

Godambe and Thompson consider the problem of confidence intervals in survey sampling. They first review the use of estimating functions to obtain model robust pivotal quantities and associated confidence intervals, and then discuss the adaptation of this approach to the survey sampling context. Details are worked out for some more specific types of models, and an empirical comparison of this approach with more conventional methods is presented.

J.N.K. Rao gives an overview of the methods and models used for small area estimation. This is an update of his previous overview (Ghosh and Rao, 1994, Statistical Science). He first presents a general discussion of small area models, making a distinction between area level models and unit level models. He then describes the development in three main approaches for inference based on these models: EBLUP, EB and HB, gives several examples of recent applications. Finally, he presents an interesting discussion identifying the gaps and areas that require further research.

Sirken and Shimizu derive a Horvitz-Thompson estimator for population based establishment sample surveys (PBESs). A PBES is a survey of establishments where the sampling frame consists of establishments with which a preliminary sample of households or individuals has had some contact.

Jean-Claude Deville shows how to use simple tools to calculate the variance of a complex estimator using a linearization technique. The process is that of a software used at INSEE for estimation of the variance of a complex estimator. It gives a way of computing the variance of a total estimated by the simple expansion estimator. In the case of a complex statistic, the process uses a derived variable that reduces the computations to those of the simple expansion estimator. Multiple examples are given to illustrate the process.

Brewer proposes a method of weight calibration in survey sampling, called cosmetic calibration, which yields cosmetic estimators of totals, i.e. estimators that can be interpreted as both design-based and prediction based. He also discusses variance estimation and shows how the problem of negative weights can be easily and naturally handled using cosmetic calibration. Finally he compares the properties of the weights and the resulting estimators to some alternative approaches using some Australian far data.

This paper states how SN is preparing for a new era in the making of statistics, as it is triggered by technological and methodological developments. An essential feature of the turn to the new era is the farewell to the stovepipe way of data processing. The paper discusses how new technological and methodological tools will affect processes and their organization. Special emphasis is put on one of the major chances and challenges the new tools offer: establishing coherence in the content of statistics and in the presentation to users.

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) links immigration and taxation administrative records into a comprehensive source of data on the labour market behaviour of the landed immigrant population in Canada. It covers the period 1980 to 1995 and will be updated annually starting with the 1996 tax year in 1999. Statistics Canada manages the database on behalf of a federal-provincial consortium led by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The IMDB was created specifically to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the performance and impact of immigration policies and programs. It is the only source of data at Statistics Canada that provides a direct link between immigration policy levers and the economic performance of immigrants. The paper will examine the issues related to the development of a longitudinal database combining administrative records to support policy-relevant research and analysis. Discussion will focus specifically on the methodological, conceptual, analytical and privacy issues involved in the creation and ongoing development of this database. The paper will also touch briefly on research findings, which illustrate the policy outcome links the IMDB allows policy-makers to investigate.

One method of enriching survey data is to supplement information collected directly from the respondent with that obtained from administrative systems. The aims of such a practice include being able to collect data which might not otherwise be possible, provision of better quality information for data items which respondents may not be able to report accurately (or not at all) reduction of respondent load, and maximising the utility of information held in administrative systems. Given the direct link with administrative information, the data set resulting from such techniques is potentially a powerful basis for policy-relevant analysis and evaluation. However, the processes involved in effectively combining data from different sources raise a number of challenges which need to be addressed by the parties involved. These include issues associated with privacy, data linking, data quality, estimation, and dissemination.

We estimate the parameters of a stochastic model for labour force careers involving distributions of correlated durations employed, unemployed (with and without job search) and not in the labour force. If the model is to account for sub-annual labour force patterns as well as advancement towards retirement, then no single data source is adequate to inform it. However, it is possible to build up an approximation from a number of different sources.

The U.S. Manufacturing Plant Ownership Change Database (OCD) was constructed using plant-level data taken from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Research Database (LRD). It contains data on all manufacturing plants that have experienced ownership change at least once during the period 1963-92. This paper reports the status of the OCD and discuss its research possibilities. For an empirical demonstration, data taken from the database are used to study the effects of ownership changes on plant closure.

Objective: To create an occupational surveillance system by collecting, linking, evaluating and disseminating data relating to occupation and mortality with the ultimate aim of reducing or preventing excess risk among workers and the general population.

Time series studies have shown associations between air pollution concentrations and morbidity and mortality. These studies have largely been conducted within single cities, and with varying methods. Critics of these studies have questioned the validity of the data sets used and the statistical techniques applied to them; the critics have noted inconsistencies in findings among studies and even in independent re-analyses of data from the same city. In this paper we review some of the statistical methods used to analyze a subset of a national data base of air pollution, mortality and weather assembled during the National Morbidity and Mortality Air Pollution Study (NMMAPS).

Radon, a naturally occurring gas found at some level in most homes, is an established risk factor for human lung cancer. The U.S. National Research Council (1999) has recently completed a comprehensive evaluation of the health risks of residential exposure to radon, and developed models for projecting radon lung cancer risks in the general population. This analysis suggests that radon may play a role in the etiology of 10-15% of all lung cancer cases in the United States, although these estimates are subject to considerable uncertainty. In this article, we present a partial analysis of uncertainty and variability in estimates of lung cancer risk due to residential exposure to radon in the United States using a general framework for the analysis of uncertainty and variability that we have developed previously. Specifically, we focus on estimates of the age-specific excess relative risk (ERR) and lifetime relative risk (LRR), both of which vary substantially among individuals.

There are many different situations in which one or more files need to be linked. With one file the purpose of the linkage would be to locate duplicates within the file. When there are two files, the linkage is done to identify the units that are the same on both files and thus create matched pairs. Often records that need to be linked do not have a unique identifier. Hierarchical record linkage, probabilistic record linkage and statistical matching are three methods that can be used when there is no unique identifier on the files that need to be linked. We describe the major differences between the methods. We consider how to choose variables to link, how to prepare files for linkage and how the links are identified. As well, we review tips and tricks used when linking files. Two examples, the probabilistic record linkage used in the reverse record check and the hierarchical record linkage of the Business Number (BN) master file to the Statistical Universe File (SUF) of unincorporated tax filers (T1) will be illustrated.

As the availability of both health utilization and outcome information becomes increasingly important to health care researchers and policy makers, the ability to link person-specific health data becomes a critical objective. This type of linkage of population-based administrative health databases has been realized in British Columbia. The database was created by constructing an historical file of all persons registered with the health care system, and then by probabilistically linking various program files to this 'coordinating' file. The first phase of development included the linkage of hospital discharge data, physician billing data, continuing care data, data about drug costs for the elderly, births data and deaths data. The second phase of development has seen the addition data sources external to the Ministry of Health including cancer incidence data, workers' compensation data, and income assistance data.