You Won’t Believe How Much You Need This: Accounting for ZIP Code Boundary Changes, 1990 – 2015
Posted: 4/19/2020 (CSDE Seminar Series)
This Friday, CSDE Regional Affiliate Amy Bailey and Allison Suppan Helmuth will co-present on ZIP code boundary changes. ZIP Codes are an important geographic identifier, frequently the best spatial measure available in spatially-referenced administrative data. As such, they represent an underutilized, potentially valuable tool allowing social scientists to embed individuals and institutions within neighborhood contexts. However, ZIP Codes frequently change, particularly in areas undergoing rapid change. Unfortunately, no tool allows researchers to account for these changes. In this presentation, Bailey and Helmuth will briefly cover the history of ZIP Codes and how the intended usage by USPS differs from the ways in which social and demographic researchers might want to use them.
Date: 04/24/2020
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 PM
Location: Virtual via Zoom