Abstract

Record linkage, sometimes referred to as information retrieval (Frakes and Baeza-Yates, 1992) is needed for the creation, unduplication, and maintenance of name and address lists. This paper describes string comparators and their effect in a production matching system. Because many lists have typographical errors in more than 20 percent of first names and also in last names, effective methods for dealing with typographical error can greatly improve matching efficacy. The enhanced methods of approximate string comparison deals with typographical variations and scanning errors. The values returned by the string comparator are used in a statistical model for adjusting parameters that are automatically estimated by an expectation-maximization algorithm for latent class, log linear models of the type arising in the Fellegi-Sunter model of record linkage (1969). Overall matching efficacy is further improved by linear assignment algorithm that forces 1-1 matching.

Citations