Luxembourg Income Study

THE LUXEMBOURG INCOME Study (LIS) is a project that brings together household surveys from 25 countries (surveys from four other countries are under negotiation) into a common database to make studies of international economic comparisons easier. For instance, it includes current population surveys from the United States, French surveys of income, and a Hungarian income study. LIS was founded in 1983 under the joint sponsorship of the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Centre for Population, Poverty and Policy Studies (CEPS).

LIS is a nonprofit cooperative project with a membership that includes 29 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, with members ranging from industrialized countries to those in transition to ones in the developing stage. LIS is funded primarily by the national research foundations of its members. Its main objective is to construct a comprehensive and useful database that can be considered as the best source for international comparative studies.

To further the objective, LIS initiated in 1994 the Luxembourg Employment Study (LES), which has constructed a databank containing Labor Force Surveys from the early 1990s from countries with quite different labor market structures. These surveys provide detailed information on areas like job search, employment characteristics, comparable occupations, investment in education, and migration. In 2003 the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWB) was initiated with the goal of constructing cross-national comparable datasets from existing data, establishing a network of producers of microdata on household worth, and the production of guidelines for data producers.

The LIS, LES, and LWB collect datasets, that is, sample surveys that have already been collected by the Central Statistical Offices of the various member countries. The micro-datasets received are then transformed according to a variable structure in order to make them comparable across countries.

In other words, LIS, LES, and LWB are databases that put together and make comparable surveys of different countries for cross-country research purposes. The database includes household-income surveys that provide demographic, income, and expenditure information on three levels: household, person, and child. The average survey includes about 9,000 households, with more than 20,000 individuals.

The LIS uses over 200 variables, but not all of them are included in each survey. Because of the confidentiality of the information, users must register with the LIS to be given access. Registration must be done through its official website. A researcher working for an academic, government, or nonprofit organization affiliated with an LIS member country is allowed unlimited free usage of the LIS/LES database. The LIS member countries pay usage fees on behalf of their researchers. A link to a list of member countries is available on the LIS website.