Introduction - Short History

Short Description - History - Where are we going?

The Luxembourg Income Study

The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS, asbl - non profit organization) is a cross-national data archive located in Luxembourg.
The LIS archive contains two primary databases.

The LIS database
The LIS Database includes income microdata from a large number of countries at multiple points in time.

The LWS database
(released December 2007)
The LWS Database includes wealth microdata from a smaller selection of countries.

Both databases include labor market and demographic data as well. Registered users may access the microdata for social scientific research using a remote-access system. All visitors to the website may download the LIS Key Figures, which provide country-level poverty and inequality indicators

Harmonization, Standardization and Remote Data Access

The LIS team 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 (no direct access). Interested researchers should go to the user information page.

History - Where are we going?
The LIS project began 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). The project is mainly funded by the national science and social science research foundations of its member countries. Recently, LIS and the University of Luxembourg became partners, with offices being provided by the university.

Over the years, the LIS project has expanded very quickly. The number of member countries continues to grow and the database now covers more than 30 countries with datasets that span up to three decades. LIS welcomes new countries whether they have advanced market economies, economies in transition, or are developing - as long as they can provide us with good quality household surveys. Finally, our main objective is and will always be to construct harmonized databases that can be considered as the best source for international comparative studies. Over the next several years, our plan is to expand beyond our traditional focus on high income countries to include several middle income coutnries.