A0563
Title: Strategies to facilitate access to detailed geocoding information based on synthetic data
Authors: Jingchen Hu - Vassar College (United States) [presenting]
Abstract: Results are presented on whether generating synthetic data can be a viable strategy to provide access to detailed geocoding information for external researchers, without compromising the confidentiality of the units included in the database. This research was motivated by a recent project at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Germany that linked exact geocodes to the Integrated Employment Biographies, a large administrative database containing several million records. Based on these data, we evaluate the performance of several synthesizers in terms of addressing the trade-of between preserving analytical validity and limiting the risk of disclosure. We propose strategies for making the synthesizers scalable for such large files, introduce analytical validity measures for the generated data, and provide general recommendations for statistical agencies considering the synthetic data approach for disseminating detailed geographical information
