A Cautionary Tale About the Use of Administrative Data: Evidence from Age of Marriage Laws
研究发现，美国州级最低婚龄法的效果在普查回顾数据中比在生命统计行政记录中小得多，原因包括跨州结婚和虚报年龄，警示行政数据在某些情况下可能劣于调查数据。
This paper demonstrates that administrative data may be inferior to survey data under particular circumstances. We examine the effect of state laws governing the minimum age of marriage in the United States. The estimated effects of these laws are much smaller when based on retrospective reports from census versus administrative records from Vital Statistics data. This discrepancy appears due to systematic avoidance behavior of two kinds. Some young people marry in states with less restrictive laws; others appear to have misrepresented their age on their marriage certificate. Our results have important implications regarding legal avoidance and the use of administrative data.