Abstract

Administrative data have proven to be a rich and powerful resource for research in empirical labor economics, sociology or statistics and enables researchers to publish papers in highly ranked academic journals. Among others, one reason for the high utilization of administrative data is that they can comparatively easy be shaped according to the researchers needs. As a consequence, many of the publications in top leading journals is based on individualized or custom-shaped administrative data which fits perfectly the identification strategies of the researchers. The Research Data Center (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is the most important supplier of administrative labor market data on the level of individuals/households or establishments to the scientific community in Germany. Over the years, FDZ supplied numerous projects with data and thus provided the basis for top-level publications in prestigious journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the American Economic Review. Examples are the papers by Dustmann et. al. 2009, Schmieder et al. 2012, Biewen et al. 2013 or Card et al. 2013. For the DFG Priority Program The German Labour Market in a Globalised World: Challenges through Trade, Technology, and Demographics (SPP 1764), FDZ will continue to supply high quality administrative data to researchers and will provide projects of this DFG Priority Program with custom shaped data, specifically designed to suit the underlying research questions of the specific projects. Data production improves with research experience and the optimal provision/preparation of administrative data by the data provider requires a close communication between researchers and the data provider. In order to foster this productive exchange, FDZ will collaborate with researchers of this DFG Priority Program and numerous international researchers on data development and on substantive research questions. The idea is to create data that are not only a resource for the projects of this DFG Priority Program but which will also represent an added value to the scientific community in general. Hence, FDZ aims to document all of these newly generated data both in German and English and to make them publicly available. The unique interaction between FDZ, researchers and international experts in this DFG Priority Program will not only ensure the creation of new and innovative data. It will lay the basis for cutting-edge research may be measured in terms of international visibility and top-level publications within this DFG Priority Program and beyond.