ESDS Government

Aggregate databanks in ESDS International

Celia Russell, ESDS International, University of Manchester

ESDS International is a specialist data service of the Economic and Social Data Service and provides online access to the major time series databanks produced by international governmental organisations such as the World Bank, Eurostat and OECD. Access to the service is free for staff and students of UK academic institutions. This presentation will give an overview of the databanks available and highlight some recent examples of their use in teaching and research.

Survey datasets in ESDS International

Jack Kneeshaw, ESDS International, University of Essex

ESDS International also enables users to locate and acquire international micro-level datasets, such as Eurobarometer, the European Values Surveys and the European Social Survey. This talk will give an overview of the datasets available and how they may be accessed through the service.

Survey datasets in ESDS Government

Jo Wathan, ESDS Government

This session gives an overview of the datasets and wider resources available from ESDS Government. ESDS Government supports a range of UK Government datasets, including the UK-Labour Force Survey, the General Household Survey–Longitudinal (GHS-L), and the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS). Although these datasets pertain to the UK or British context, international standardisation often allows comparisons to be drawn. Some surveys also form parts of international surveys. Components of the UK-LFS are used to create the EU-LFS, and the GHS-L provides the UK data for the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). ESDS Government provides a range of resources to support usage of the surveys. These include online training materials and guides, survey user meetings, data workshops, databases of publications and registered uses of the surveys, and a query helpdesk.

Eurostat microdata resources

Tanvi Desai, LSE

The effect of the 1997 EU Council Regulation on access to data for scientific purposes is finally being felt as Eurostat release more and more microdata for research purposes. Though this is not open data, there is a high demand for comparative international microdata with defined access procedures, so these are very valuable resources for researchers. However accessing these data can be difficult and time consuming. This paper will look at the sources available, ELFS, ECHP/EUSILC, CIS, ESES; access methods including direct access to CD Roms, the Eurostat Data Laboratory, and the PiEP-LISSY remote access system; and provides tips and guidelines for successful data registration.

Research potential of Eurostat data

Anthony Rafferty, ESDS Government

The research potential of Eurostat data will be demonstrated across a range of micro-datasets, including the EU-LFS, ECHP, and EU-SILC. Issues of cross-national comparability represent a common challenge to comparative research, particularly where research involves secondary data sources collected in different countries. The strength of Eurostat micro-datasets consequently rests in the wealth of standardised or harmonised information they provide. Whereas the EU-LFS has facilitated the comparative benchmarking of labour markets across Europe, the ECHP, and maturation of the EU-SILC provide rich sources of panel data, allowing the comparative analysis of change over time at the level of the individual.

Countries and Citizens

Celia Russell, ESDS International

Users of survey and aggregate data are often two very distinct groups of researchers that have a tendency not to use both types of data. One of the main reasons for this is thought to be lack of awareness about availability and about how different data types can be combined to inform, enrich and generate new research perspectives. The Countries and Citizens project addresses these issues by providing an interactive online training course that identifies the potential benefits and problems associated with linking international aggregate and survey data. The materials are freely available to the UK academic community.

Multilevel models for combining European macro and micro data
Mark Tranmer, University of Manchester