Advance Announcement: New LIS Data Template to be Revealed this Fall

In June 2011, LIS launched a new website and a new logo. In October 2011, we will take another exciting step forward, when we introduce a new LIS data template.

We have redesigned the entire LIS Database using a unique standard template to increase both the user-friendliness of the microdata and the comparability across datasets. The new template – which we are referring to as the “2011 LIS Data Template” – is also designed specifically to more fully accommodate datasets from both middle- and high-income countries.

We anticipate that LIS data users will find datasets harmonised in the new template easier to work with. All variables have been reorganised into a comprehensive and more logically structured list, so that less dataset-specific recoding will be needed when using the LIS microdata.

More specifically, the new template incorporates two major achievements:

● categorical variables will be available in fully standardised formats;
● household disposable income will be disaggregated into subcomponents that are more comparable and thus more meaningful for research purposes.

The new template will be used when we harmonise the Wave VII datasets – the first ones are coming soon – and for all other datasets added to the LIS Database from now on.

LIS will also issue a new release of all existing datasets. That will bring these earlier datasets in line with the 2011 LIS Data Template, as much as possible, which will facilitate over-time analyses. We will continue to make available the earlier versions of these datasets for those users who wish to access them in order to finish ongoing projects. Newly-added datasets, however, will be harmonised only in the new template.

We are sending this announcement today simply as a “heads up”. For those of you who wish to take an advance peek at the new LIS Variable List, here it is:

http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/lis-variable-list-new.pdf

Otherwise, stay tuned! In October, the 2011 Template will “go live” and you will have the opportunity to see it in action.