Household surveys are a vital source of information for understanding economic well-being.  But traditional survey methods often fail to capture accurate data on income and government program participation, particularly for low-income and minority groups. This grant supports research by Derek Wu at the University of Virginia to improve the nation’s official income and poverty statistics by linking major household surveys with administrative records. The team will develop new coverage-adjustment methods using federal and state administrative data to fill gaps and correct inaccuracies in survey samples. They will create imputation models to replace misreported survey entries with values derived from administrative records. The project will reconcile inconsistencies between surveys and administrative data to produce more accurate estimates of household income, poverty rates, and other key economic indicators.  The project’s expected output includes revised survey weights, imputed statistical results, and openly shared methods to enhance data accuracy for research on poverty, labor force participation, and social benefit programs.