Linking Survey Data with the Catalist Commercial Database

Abstract

Outside of official government records and consumer file databases developed by market research companies, political data are another type of data that researchers commonly wish to link to survey data. These data often overlap with the consumer file databases, containing records of things like magazine subscriptions and interest-group memberships. These political databases also typically integrate official government records such as vote history and voter registration status. This chapter describes an example of one company that administers a political database and sells access to these data to researchers and political organizations.