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The First 50 Contributions to the Data Observer Series – An Overview

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Published/Copyright: November 4, 2022
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Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik
From the journal Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik Volume 242 Issue 5-6

Abstract

Since 2016 the Journal of Economics and Statistics has the Data Observer section with descriptions of data that can be used in empirical research in economics and in the social sciences in general. This note gives a short overview of the first 50 contributions to the series published until 2022.

Keywords: Data Observer; firm level data; individual level data; research data centers
JEL Classification: C81

1 Introduction

Starting in issue 1 of volume 236 (2016), the Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik/Journal of Economics and Statistics publish a special section entitled Data Observer.[1] Contributions to this series describe data that can be used in empirical research in economics, and in the social sciences in general. While most of these data sets are micro data at the level of individuals, households, or firms (including linked employer–employee data sets), cross section and time series data at an aggregate level are covered as well. The purpose of the contributions to this section is to describe the information that is available in the data sets, to give examples of topics investigated with the data, and to inform readers how to access these data for their own research. The contributions are written by experts who often were in charge of collecting or building the data sets. Furthermore, papers in the series portray the research data centers and data service centers of data producing institutions that allow academic researchers to work with (mostly confidential) micro data for individuals and firms.

This note gives a short overview of the first 50 contributions to the Data Observer series that were published between 2016 and 2022.[2] Twenty one papers deal with data on individuals or household, 12 with data on establishments or enterprises, two with linked employer–employee data, nine cover aggregate data for regions or countries, three look at other data, and three papers introduce research data centers or data service centers that provide data. Table 1 lists all contributions by the broad categories.

Table 1:

Contributions to the Data Observer series in the Journal of Economics and Statistics.

Research Data Centers and Data Service Centers
The Research Data Center PIAAC at GESIS Perry and Rammstedt (2016)
The Research Data Centre of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (FDZ-IWH) Lang and Kuttig (2017)
German Record Linkage Center (GRLC) Antoni and Schnell (2019)
Data on individuals and households
National Education Panel Study (NEPS) Fuß et al. (2016)
Register Data on Voluntary Unemployment Insurance Hofmann et al. (2016)
German Doctoral Candidates and Doctoral Holders Study (ProFile) Lange et al. (2017)
Panel Data on Training Activities – Voucher Recipients and Eligible Employees of the Program Bildungsprämie Görlitz and Tamm (2017)
Financial Incentives on Weight Loss (RWI-Obesity) Eilers and Pilny (2018)
The Administrative Wage and Labor Market Flow Panel Stüber and Seth (2019)
The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Goebel et al. (2019)
PASS-ADIAB – Linked Survey and Administrative Data for Research on Unemployment and Poverty Antoni and Bethmann (2019)
Early Childhood Education and Care Quality in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) – the K2ID-SOEP Study Spieß et al. (2020)
SHARE-RV: Linked Data to Study Aging in Germany Börsch-Supan et al. (2020)
Statutory Pension Insurance Accounts and Divorce: A New Scientific Use File Keck et al. (2020)
The German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife) Lang et al. (2020)
HILDA: Australian Household Panel Data Watson and Wooden (2021)
BAuA Working Time Survey Wöhrmann et al. (2021)
Green-SÖP: The Socio-ecological Panel Survey: 2012–2016 Klick et al. (2021)
Data for Migration Research from the German Socio-Economic Panel Jacobsen et al. (2021)
SOEP-RV: Linking German SOEP Data tp Pension Records Lüthen et al. (2022)
The Swiss Household Panel (SHP) Tillmann et al. (2022)
The Social Sustainability Barometer 2027 – 2019 Matjeko and Sommer (2022)
Data on Digital Transformation in the German SOEP Fedorets et al. (2022)
The DeZIM panel on migrants in Germany Dollmann et al. (2022)
Data on firms (establishments and enterprises)
The Establishment History Panel Eberle and Schmucker (2017)
The ZEW ICT Survey Bertschek et al. (2018)
The German Management and Organizational Practices (GMOP) Survey Laible and Görg (2019)
The Micro Data Linking-Panel: A Combined Firm Dataset Leppert (2020)
Transaction Data for Germany’s Exports and Imports of Goods Wagner (2020a)
Marmonization of the ifo Business Survey’s Micro Data Link (2020)
Data for Mittelstand Compnies in Germany at the IfM Bonn Schlömer-Laufen and Schneck (2020)
The Top 100 Companies Panel Database Buchwald et al. (2021)
A Dataset for Blockholders in US-Listed Firms Harries (2022)
Combined Business Tax Statistics for Germany Buchner et al. (2022)
Establishments in the COVID-19 crisis in Germany Bellmann et al. (2022)
Supplementary questions in the ifo Business Survey Demmelhuber et al. (2022)
Linked employer–employee data
The Linked Employer–Employee Study of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-LEE) Weinhardt et al. (2017)
The Linked Personnel Panel (LPP) Ruf et al. (2020)
Data for regions and countries
The German Time Series Dataset, 1934–2012 Rahlf (2016)
Exporter and Importer Dynamics Database for Germany Wagner (2016)
RWI-GEO-GRID: Socio-economic data on grid level Breidenbach and Eilers (2018)
Ifo World Economic Survey (WES) Boumans and Garbitz (2017)
Population Projection for Germany 2015–2050 on Grid Level (RWI-GEO-GRID-POP-Forecast) Breidenbach et al. (2019)
The KOF Globalisation Index Haelg (2020)
Regional Real Estate Price Indices for Germany, 2008–2019: RWI-GEO-REDEX Klick and Schaffner (2021)
Business Concentration Data for Germany Heidorn and Weche (2021)
IOER Monitor: Data on Settlement and Open Space in Germany Meinel et al. (2022)
Other data
Survey Data in the Role of Universities in the German Regional Innovation System Warnecke (2018)
Industry Conversion Tables for German Firm-Level Data Dierks et al. (2020)
Tracking the Rise of Robots: The IFR Database Jurkat et al. (2022)

  1. Remark: All contributions are available free of charge at https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jbnst/html?lang=en. (aop) refers to contributions that are available “ahead of print” before inclusion in a printed issue.

All contributions to the Data Observer section are available free of charge from the website of the Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik/Journal of Economics and Statistics: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jbnst/html?lang=en.

Those who are interested in contributing to this series are encouraged to contact the editor-in-charge, Joachim Wagner, by sending a mail to .

Corresponding author: Joachim Wagner, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Fakultät Wirtschaft, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany, E-mail:

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Received: 2022-09-30
Accepted: 2022-10-01
Published Online: 2022-11-04
Published in Print: 2022-12-16

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue Articles
  3. Redistribution In A Globalized World
  4. The Long and Winding Road to Local Fiscal Equity in the United States: A Fifty-Year Retrospective
  5. Evolution of the New Market Tax Credit
  6. A Harmonized Net Wealth Tax in the European Union
  7. Data Observer
  8. Tracking the Rise of Robots: The IFR Database
  9. Data on Digital Transformation in the German Socio-Economic Panel
  10. The First 50 Contributions to the Data Observer Series – An Overview
  11. Miscellaneous
  12. Annual Reviewer Acknowledgement
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2022-0061
Keywords for this article
Data Observer; firm level data; individual level data; research data centers

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue Articles
  3. Redistribution In A Globalized World
  4. The Long and Winding Road to Local Fiscal Equity in the United States: A Fifty-Year Retrospective
  5. Evolution of the New Market Tax Credit
  6. A Harmonized Net Wealth Tax in the European Union
  7. Data Observer
  8. Tracking the Rise of Robots: The IFR Database
  9. Data on Digital Transformation in the German Socio-Economic Panel
  10. The First 50 Contributions to the Data Observer Series – An Overview
  11. Miscellaneous
  12. Annual Reviewer Acknowledgement
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