ECINEQ is committed to broad dissemination of data and believes that more access to data improves the quality of research. In this page you will find links to data that are for the most part freely available.

If you have comments or suggestions please contact

 

 

DATA SOURCES

 

INTERNATIONAL

    BY COUNTRY

 

Survey Data

1.      Consortium of Household Panels for European Socio-economic Research (CHER)

2.      Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF)

3.      Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)

4.      Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-(IPUMS-International)

5.      Latin American Migration Project (LAMP)

6.      Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) 

7.      Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) 

8.      Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) 

9.      Panel Comparability Project (PACO)

10.  Panel datasets in developing and transitional countries

11.  Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Other

1.      Oxford Latin American Economic History Database (OxLAD)

2.      University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP)

3.      World Income Inequality Database (WIID)

 

 

  1. Argentina
  2. Australia
  3. Canada
  4. Cyprus
  5. Germany
  6. Italy
  7. Mexico
  8. United Kingdom
  9. United States

 

 

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL: Survey Data
 

CHER: Consortium of Household Panels for European Socio-economic Research


The main work of this consortium is to create the comparative micro database of CHER, which will contain comparable variables transformed according to a common plan and be built by using standardized international classifications where available. Information in these files will be available (a) for households and individuals on the
micro level, (b) for single years and (c) as longitudinal information, all of them linked to macro and institutional data. The comparative database will contain harmonized and consistent variables and identical data structures for each country included: 14 EU countries, Poland, Hungary, Canada and USA. The data are stored as system files for the statistical packages SPSS, SAS and Stata. 

http://www.ceps.lu/cher/accueil.cfm

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CNEF: The Cross-National Equivalent File

The Cross-National Equivalent File 1980-2005 contains equivalently defined variables for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA), and the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). The data are designed to allow cross-national researchers not experienced in panel data analysis to access a simplified version of these panels, while providing experienced panel data users with guidelines for formulating equivalent variables across countries. Most importantly, the equivalent file provides a set of constructed variables (for example pre- and post-government income and United States and international household equivalence weights) that are not directly available on the original surveys. Since the Cross-National Equivalent File 1980-2005 can be merged with the original surveys, PSID-CNEF users can easily incorporate these constructed variables into current analyses.

http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/PAM/Research/Centers-Programs/German-Panel/cnef.cfm                                                                                                                                                              

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DHS: Demographic and Health Surveys

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are nationally-representative household surveys with large sample sizes (usually between 5,000 and 30,000 households). DHS surveys provide data for a wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators in the areas of population, health, and nutrition.

Typically, DHS surveys are conducted every 5 years, to allow comparisons over time. Interim Surveys focus on the collection of information on key performance monitoring indicators but may not include data for all impact evaluation measures (such as mortality rates). These surveys are conducted between rounds of DHS surveys and have shorter questionnaires than DHS surveys. Although nationally representative, these surveys have smaller samples than DHS surveys (2,000–3,000 households).

The basic approach of the MEASURE DHS program is to collect and make available data that are comparable across countries. To achieve this, MEASURE DHS works to ensure that proper guidance is in place, budgets and schedules are managed, and standard procedures are followed. MEASURE DHS makes available a variety of resources and services to support these efforts.

http://www.measuredhs.com/aboutsurveys/dhs/start.cfm  

 

 

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IPUMS-International: Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-International

IPUMS-International is a new project dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world. Its goals are to:

http://www.ipums.umn.edu/

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LAMP: The Latin American Migration Project

The Latin American Migration Project (LAMP) is a collaborative research project based at Princeton University and the University of Guadalajara. The LAMP was born as an extension of the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), which was created in 1982 by an interdisciplinary team of researchers to advance our understanding of the complex processes of international migration and immigration to the United States. Data gathered by the MMP have been the source of a sizable amount of research on international migration. The purpose of the LAMP is to extend this research to migration flows originating in other Latin American countries.

The LAMP and the MMP share the same methodology (see the MMP website). An ethnosurvey focusing on the migration process is at its core. In addition to basic demographic data, the survey gathers information on family composition, fertility, infant mortality, marital history of the household head, labor history of the household head and his/her spouse, and ownership history of properties and businesses. Furthermore, detailed data on internal migration, migration to the mainland US, and multiple aspects of key US trips (work experience, income, social networks, remittances, welfare use, etc.) are also collected.

The LAMP began operations in 1998 with a set of surveys conducted in Puerto Rico. It expanded later with fieldwork carried out in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Haiti, Peru, and Guatemala. In addition, a modified version of the LAMP survey was implemented in Paraguay to study migration from that country to Argentina. The surveys in Nicaragua and Costa Rica were made possible through an association between the LAMP and the Central American Population Center of the University of Costa Rica. The surveys in Paraguay were designed and implemented by an associated project (click here to find out more.)

Data from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, and Haiti are available, and can be downloaded from this website. Future releases will be made available through this website as well. If you would like to receive an email announcement every time we make new data available, register as a LAMP user and specify so on the registration form.

http://lamp.opr.princeton.edu/

 

 

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 LSMS: Living Standards Measurement Study of the World Bank 

 

Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) household surveys have become an important tool in measuring and understanding poverty in developing countries. The Development Economics Research Group (DECRG) of the World Bank, formerly the Policy Research Department, maintains this website to make available to researchers around the world the data sets and methodological lessons from these surveys.

The main objective of LSMS surveys is to collect household data that can be used to assess household welfare, to understand household behavior, and to evaluate the effect of various government policies on the living conditions of the population. Accordingly, LSMS surveys collect data on many dimensions of household well-being, including consumption, income, savings, employment, health, education, fertility, nutrition, housing and migration.

http://www.worldbank.org/lsms/index.htm

 

 

 

 

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LIS: Luxembourg Income Study

The LIS database is a collection of household income surveys. These surveys provide demographic, income, and expenditure information on three different levels: household, person, and child. LIS is a not-for-profit cooperative research project joining 29 countries on four continents: Europe, America, Asia and Oceania. The LIS staff harmonizes and standardizes the micro-data from the different surveys in order to facilitate comparative research. The datasets can be accessed via the internet mailing system by submitting SAS, SPSS or STATA programs. To allow for more complex multi-level modelling, soon the package R will be added to this list.

 

The LIS databank contains more than 140 datasets covering the period 1968 to 2002. At present, recent surveys are being added to fully represent the period of the late 1660's or 2000 for most of the nations. Extensive documentation concerning technical aspects of the survey data, the harmonization process, and the social institutions of income provision in member countries is also available to users. This work has been supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging, the Statistical Office of the European Community, the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Community Directorate General’s Office, the Ford Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Russell Sage Foundation, by the government of Luxembourg and by our member nations.

 

Reports by participants in the LIS project have appeared in books, articles and dissertations, and are often featured in the media. Each completed study is published in the LIS working paper series, which currently numbers more than 400 papers. Most working papers are available on the LIS home page.  The project conducts annual summer workshops to introduce researchers to the database, and to give scholars experience in cross-national analysis of social policy issues related to poverty analyses and income distribution. Over 450 students attended these summer-sessions.  Local workshops have also been organized in Finland, Germany, Italy and the United Sates. The LIS newsletter is published twice yearly and mailed to over 1400 scholars in 35 nations. 

http://www.lisproject.org

 

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 LWS: Luxembourg Wealth Study

 

The Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) was launched in 2003 after a team of experts on wealth and data collection agreed that scientific probability, timing, data availability and funding possibilities were in line to create a cross-nationally comparable wealth dataset from existing data. LWS is part of a not-for-profit organization–the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), existing since 1983 and providing access to over 140 comparable datasets from 29 countries.

 

The LWS Project has four goals:

1)   Establishing a network of producers of micro-data on household net worth in order to share accumulated knowledge and exchange information on best practices;

2)  Constructing a cross-national comparable dataset based on existing data to form the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS), that will be made eventually available through the Luxembourg Income Study database (LIS) to all researchers. For now the aim is ex post standardization for a limited number of nations. Once the project is successful, in the medium period, it could stimulate ex ante standardization, as LIS has already done in the income area;

3)   Producing comparative studies on household net worth, portfolio composition, and the wealth distribution of populations in different countries. Exploiting the comparability aspect of the LWS data to better understand conflicting evidence from micro and macro sources; and

4)   Produce guidelines for data producers, similar to what has been done for income distribution statistics through LIS with the final Report of the Canberra Group.

 

LWS will contain data on detailed wealth holdings, household and adult characteristics, behavioral aspects of wealth holdings and, to the extent possible, income and consumption data as well. Thus, it will facilitate wealth comparability with income comparability across countries and lead to new studies including wealth, consumption and income. Topics such as accumulation of retirement wealth, age patterns of asset accumulation, housing wealth, and similar subject matter can be studied with this database

http://www.lisproject.org/lws.htm                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 

 

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PACO: The Panel Comparability Project


PACO is a centralized approach to create an international comparative database integrating micro-data from various national household panels over a large number of years. The PACO Database contains harmonized and consistent variables and identical data structures of each country included. Therefore, the PACO Database facilitates comparative cross-national and longitudinal research on processes and dynamics of policy issues such as labour force participation, income distribution, poverty and problems of the elderly. The PACO database contains data from household panel studies in Luxembourg (PSELL), Germany (SOEP), Great Britain (BHPS), the United States (PSID), France (ESEML-Lorraine), Hungary (HHP) and Poland (PHP), for years ranging from 1986 through 1664. Data from household p
anel studies of other countries such as the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Canada will be added in the future.

http://www.ceps.lu/paco/accueil.cfm