AN EVALUATION OF THE ACCURACY AND CURRENT UTILITY OF THE 1981 MASTER ESTABLISHMENT LIST (MEL)

摘要

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the MEL along, two dimensions: timeliness, (or conversely obsolescence) and accuracy. The business population is inherently dynamic. New business establishments are being founded continuously, existing businesses may close, merge or change ownership. Consequently aging is a critical problem for all lists such as the MEL. Also as a consequence of the dynamic nature of the business population, name and address information that was current at the time the list was compiled may now be out-of-date because establishments novo, cha-ge the nature of their operations and so forth. In addition, not all information in the data file may have been current or correct at the time it was compiled.