Conducting social science research using “big enough” data

Many administrative databases are comprehensive in the measures they collect, longitudinal with respect to the time frame they cover and follow broad populations. Those attributes make administrative databases very attractive for research in the social sciences. With governments and researchers increasingly aware of the advantages of “big data”, the use of administrative data —“big enough data”— for social sciences research has grown.

Nonetheless, quantitative social science research that employs administrative data is still fairly limited. As a consequence, researchers are not very familiar with the relative advantages, disadvantages and potential complementarities that administrative databases have with conventional sources of quantitative data (such as general population surveys).

Using several examples of social science research conducted with administrative records from the US, this presentation tries to stimulate discussion about the opportunities and challenges that the use of administrative data offers.

Wladimir Zanoni is a Visiting Scholar at Carleton University and a Senior Researcher at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.