Harmonization of Occupational and Regional Variables between GAV and IEB

Abstract

"This report documents the harmonization of occupational and regional variables between two ad-ministrative datasets: the Data Fund of Societal Work Power (GAV) of the German Democratic Re-public (GDR) and the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Federal Republic of Ger-many. The linkage combines demographic and labor market data from 1989 with employment his-tories post-1992, enabling analysis of East German labor market trajectories around reunification. Occupational harmonization follows a two-step process, converting detailed GDR codes into the standardized 2010 and 1988 classification systems. Regional harmonization employs both manual mapping and modern geospatial techniques to align 1989 GDR locations with 2014 county bound-aries. The high match rate and robust validation ensure that the resulting harmonized dataset is a reliable resource for longitudinal labor market research." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Behrens, C., Hansch, M., Nimczik, J. & Spitz-Oener, A. (2025): Harmonization of Occupational and Regional Variables between GAV and IEB. (FDZ-Methodenreport 10/2025 (en)), Nürnberg, 14 p. DOI:10.5164/IAB.FDZM.2510.de.en.v1