CenSoc-DMF

The CenSoc-DMF dataset links the 1940 census to the Death Master File, a collection of over 83 million death records reported to the Social Security Administration. This matched file includes only men, as surname changes due to marriage for women present challenges for accurate linkage. Our linking strategy relies on first name, last name, and year of birth. We use the ABE fully automated linking approach developed by Abramitzky, Boustan, and Eriksson (2012, 2014, 2017). To work with this dataset, researchers must download and link the 1940 full-count Census sample from IPUMS-USA on the HISTID variable. Please adhere to the citation and usage guidelines of both CenSoc and IPUMS-USA when using this dataset.