Exciting News: Enhanced LIS Template with Improved Identification of Family Structures and Other New Features
We are thrilled to announce the release of a new 2024 LIS template featuring improved variables and several exciting additions designed to enhance the quality and usability of our data. These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality, harmonized datasets on income and wealth for the global research community.
A central motivation for this revision was to improve the section of Household Composition and Living Arrangements, a vital component of social and economic analysis. The classification of household composition has been revisited to address limitations in the previous version. The newly introduced concept of ‘dependent child’, whereby both age and enrollment in continuous education are considered, provides a clearer categorization for the family nucleus. Additionally, the new household type variable now emphasizes the family nucleus rather than relying on the ‘reference person’ (formerly ‘household head’). This shift enables more accurate classification of household types, particularly single-parent households with dependent children, which is further supported by the addition of a new lone-parent variable at the individual level. In addition, LIS is now providing pointers to the partner and both parents, when available in the source data. Altogether, these enhancements enable researchers to more accurately capture complex family structures, including multigenerational households, extended families, and lone-parent families, thereby providing a clearer and more nuanced picture of living arrangements.
As part of this restructuring, the construction of the variables relation and marital also underwent minor revisions. These include adjustments in how certain categories are treated and the reorganization of detailed categories into broader groupings.
The Labour Market variables have also been improved. A new monthly wage variable has been introduced, and hourly wage has been streamlined to integrate both net and gross hourly wages. Additionally, a new occupation variable has been added to enable clear differentiation between data based on the ISCO-88 and ISCO-08 international standards.
The section Geography and Housing was extended by information on the number of rooms available for the household; the variable own no longer provides the sub-categories of free-housing.
In the LWS database, several new variables are added to the Assets and Liabilities. These will allow users to distinguish between transaction accounts and cash versus saving accounts, separate publicly traded stocks from other equity, and analyse money owed to the household more thoroughly.
Please note that as of today, all datasets in the LIS, LWS, and ERFLIS databases are available in the new 2024 LIS template and accessible through LISSY. For our curious microdata users, we have prepared a comprehensive document outlining the key changes to the LIS variables available here.
We invite you to explore these updates and take full advantage of the enhanced 2024 LIS template!
