Using Multiple Data Sources to Learn about the Race and Ethnicity of Taxpayers

Abstract

Recently, studying income by race and ethnicity has gained interest among policymakers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regularly reports on the distribution of household income, using a statistically matched dataset with survey and administrative tax data to account for the household resources for both tax filers and nonfilers. CBO has not evaluated whether the statistical match preserves the distribution of income by race and ethnicity reported in the survey. This preliminary analysis of CBO's statistically matched data by race and ethnicity uses information from survey data linked to administrative tax data at the individual level from the US Census Bureau.