The Development of Cross-national Income and Wealth Databases: The Luxembourg Income and Wealth Studies 2014-2018

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SES-1355671Janet Gornick CUNY Graduate School Founded in 1983--LIS formerly known as the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) -- is a unique, cross-national data archive and research center which fosters primary research by providing access to household microdata. LIS operates as a consortium of countries, governed by an international board, and serving an international community of researchers. LIS has four, longstanding goals: 1) harmonize micro-datasets, from multiple countries, which include data on income, wealth, employment and demography; 2) provide a secure method that allows access to data with privacy restrictions; 3) create a remote-execution system to enable research conducted from off-site locations; and 4) promote the use of microdata in comparative research on social and economic wellbeing on a global level, conduct research onsite, and sponsor and host scholars using the LIS data.LIS is a unique, cross-national data infrastructure, which is indispensable for understanding the social and economic wellbeing of people in today?s globalized world. Created expressly to foster primary research by providing access to household microdata, LIS enables the highest quality social science research, both theoretical and empirical, and informs analyses of a broad array of social and economic policies and institutions. LIS operates as a consortium of countries, governed by an international board, and serves an international community of researchers. LIS prepares and maintains two databases, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database and the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS). The LIS Database includes income, employment, and demographic variables at the person- and household-level; there currently over 250 micro-datasets from 46 countries, spanning 1968 to 2011; the LWS Database contains 20 wealth datasets from 12 countries and covers 1994 to 2007. LIS and LWS datasets, together, cover 86% of the world GDP and 64% of world population. New datasets and new countries are being added regularly.Broader Impacts LIS houses the only data infrastructure that includes income, wealth, and labor market microdata, spanning decades and from diverse geographic regions. The LIS datasets foster research on economic and social policies and their effects on outcomes including poverty, income inequality, employment status, wage patterns, gender inequality, and family structure. The LWS datasets enable research on wealth portfolios, asset levels, and the interplay between household income and wealth. The activities, goals, and accomplishments of LIS match NSF priorities (NSF Strategic Plan 2011-2016), most especially transforming frontiers of knowledge, building research infrastructure, encouraging international engagement in science, and promoting multidisciplinary research. Moreover, LIS fits well with NSF's longstanding emphasis on making knowledge accessible to policy-makers and the public at large. LIS serves thousands of researchers worldwide, from various disciplines, including economics, sociology, political science, policy studies, and public health. Users come from academia, government agencies, non-governmental agencies, supranational organizations and news agencies; one-third of registered users are American. LIS provides online instructional materials, user support, and annual training workshops. LIS is a physical and virtual venue for researchers to exchange ideas, results, and methods; these exchanges take place through the Working Paper Series, the Visiting Scholar Program, LIS conferences and workshops, and pre- and post-doctoral scholarships will develop valuable new skills in a stimulating interdisciplinary environment.