INTRODUCTION Matching has a long history of uses in statistical surveys and administrative data development. A business register consisting of names, addresses, and other identifying information such as total financial receipts might be constructed from tax and employment data bases (see chapters by Colledge, Nijhowne, and Archer). A survey of retail establishments or agricultural establishments might combine results from an area frame and a list frame. To produce a combined estimator, units from the area frame would need to be identified in the list frame (see Vogel-Kott chapter). To estimate the size of a (sub)population via capture-recapture techniques, one needs to accurately determine units common to two or more independent listings (Sekar and Deming 1949; Scheuren 1983; Winkler 1989b). Samples must be drawn appropriately to estimate overlap (Deming and Gleser 1959). Rather than develop a special survey to collect data for policy decisions, it might be more appropriate t

By combining data on enfities from different sources, researchers are often able to perform anslysas that would not be possible if they were to use data from individual sources separately.