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Comparison of Child Reporting in the American Community Survey and Federal Income Tax Returns Based on California Birth Records

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  • Gloria G. Aldana

Abstract

This paper takes advantage of administrative records from California, a state with a large child population and a significant historical undercount of children in Census Bureau data, dependent information in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040 records, and the American Community Survey to characterize undercounted children and compare child reporting. While IRS Form 1040 records offer potential utility for adjusting child undercounting in Census Bureau surveys, this analysis finds overlapping reporting issues among various demographic and economic groups. Specifically, older children, those of Non-Hispanic Black mothers and Hispanic mothers, children or parents with lower English proficiency, children whose mothers did not complete high school, and families with lower income-to-poverty ratio were less frequently reported in IRS 1040 records than other groups. Therefore, using IRS 1040 dependent records may have limitations for accurately representing populations with characteristics associated with the undercount of children in surveys.

Suggested Citation

  • Gloria G. Aldana, 2024. "Comparison of Child Reporting in the American Community Survey and Federal Income Tax Returns Based on California Birth Records," Working Papers 24-55, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-55
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    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2024/adrm/ces/CES-WP-24-55.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brittany Bond & J. David Brown & Adela Luque & Amy O’Hara, 2014. "The Nature of the Bias When Studying Only Linkable Person Records: Evidence from the American Community Survey," CARRA Working Papers 2014-08, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Gloria G. Aldana, 2022. "Comparison of California Birth Records and Census Household Composition Key," CES Technical Notes Series 22-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Maggie R. Jones & James P. Ziliak, 2022. "The Antipoverty Impact of the EITC: New Estimates from Survey and Administrative Tax Records," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 451-479.
    4. Katie Genadek & Joshua Sanders & Amanda Stevenson, 2022. "Measuring US fertility using administrative data from the Census Bureau," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(2), pages 37-58.
    5. Leticia Fernandez & Rachel Shattuck & James Noon, 2018. "The Use of Administrative Records and the American Community Survey to Study the Characteristics of Undercounted Young Children in the 2010 Census," CARRA Working Papers 2018-05, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    6. Deborah H. Griffin & William P. O'Hare, 2020. "Are Census Omissions of Young Children Due to Respondent Misconceptions about the Census?," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 8(6), pages 59-72, December.
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