Newly Recovered Microdata on U.S. Manufacturing Plants from the 1950' and 1960's: Some Early Glimpses.

摘要

Longitudinally-linked microdata on U.S. manufacturing plants are currently available toresearchers for 1963, 1967, and 1972-2009. In this paper, we provide a first look at recentlyrecovered manufacturing microdata files from the 1950s and 1960s. We describe their originsand background, discuss their contents, and begin to explore their sample coverage. We alsobegin to examine whether the available establishment identifier(s) allow record linking. Ourpreliminary analyses suggest that longitudinally-linked Annual Survey of Manufacturesmicrodata from the mid-1950s through the present containing 16 years of additional data appears possible though challenging. While a great deal of work remains, we see tremendousvalue in extending the manufacturing microdata series back into time. With these data, new linesof research become possible and many others can be revisited.