Luxembourg Income Study

8/6/2019 Luxembourg Income Study

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American Academy of Political and Social Science

The Luxembourg Income Study: The Use of International Telecommunications in ComparativeSocial ResearchAuthor(s): Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. SmeedingSource: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 495, Telescience:Scientific Communication in the Information Age (Jan., 1988), pp. 95-105

Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and SocialScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1045876 .

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ANNALS,AAPSS, 495,January1988

The Luxembourg ncomeStudy:The Use of InternationalTelecommunicationsnComparativeSocial Research

ByLEERAINWATER ndTIMOTHYM. SMEEDINGABSTRACT: computerized telecommunications network, theBITNET-EARN-NETNORTHystem,has made t possible or some588universitiesworldwide o efficientlyaccess arge-scale tatisticaldatasetsstoredat one central acility.Therearepractical nd raditional ifficulties

in comparative nternationalresearchprojects,and the LuxembourgIncome Study (LIS) seeks to overcome them. The advantagesanddisadvantages fhousingastatisticaldatabasesuchasLISin oneplaceareoutlined.Advantagessuch as buildingan expert staff who thoroughlyunderstand he data base and securingthe privacyand confidentialityguaranteesrequiredbeforenationswill grant accessto official incomestatistics are contrastedwith the disadvantagesof time, cost, and userdistancefromthe data base.The BITNET-EARN-NETNORTHystemplustheLISuserpackage econciles osts andbenefitsandallowsaccessbyresearchers t anyBITNET-EARN-NETNORTHite.Thechallenge orrealizing hesocialresearch otentialofcentralized atasets andscholarlycolleagueshipnow lies in creatingpaymentmechanismsand fundingconsortiabaseduponprinciples hat canfacilitate nternational esearchcollaboration.

Lee Rainwater is professor of sociology at Harvard Universityand chairman, FacultyExecutive Committee, HarvardInstitute of Social Research. His researchhas most recentlybeen concerned with social stratification from a comparative perspective. He is researchdirector of the Luxembourg Income Study Project.Timothy M. Smeeding is professor of public policy and economics at VanderbiltUniversity. His work is in the economics of public policy: the measurement of economicwell-being andpoverty, the well-being of the elderly, and health carefinance. He isprojectdirector of the Luxembourg Income Study Project.

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96 THE ANNALSOF THEAMERICANACADEMY

T HE practical and organizationaldifficultiesof time, distance,andcost have ormanyyearsplagued ooper-ative international esearchprojects nthe social and other sciences. Whileinternational esearch ocieties n all ofthe social sciences regularlyconvenemeetings,conferences,and congressesat whichpapers represented,hepapersnormally remain parochial in scope,limiting heiranalyses o theexperienceof onecountryconcerning givensocialissue. The basic physicalsciences canmostoftendealwithscientificaboratoryproblems that transcendsocial, eco-nomic, and political boundaries.It ispreciselyheseboundaries,owever,hatareusuallythe essence of comparativesocial scienceresearch ecause heypre-senttheresearcherwiththeopportunitytoinvestigateheways n whichdifferentsocietiesopewith imilar ocialproblems.

TRADITIONALMODEOFCOMPARATIVE ESEARCHUntil a short time ago, the mostcommon and pragmaticsolution forsocial cientistsnterestedncomparativeresearchwas to calltogethera groupof

area experts who would meet once,discuss a proposedproject, and thenwritepapersabouthow theirowncoun-triesweredealingwithsubstantivessuessuch as highlevels of povertyor preva-lentpublichealthproblems.Thepaperswould then be assembled nto a singlevolumeencompassing n introduction,a variety of chaptersreferableto in-dividual ountries, ndasummary aperthatattempted,usually nvain,to unifythe volume. The results of such en-deavorswereoftenperplexing o thosewhosoughtto learn romsuchworksorinfluencepolicyon thebasisof them.Inparticular,when the country-specificchaptersdealt withquantitative ata of

differential uality, overage, efinition,and scope-which was almost alwaysthecase-the results hatemergedwerefrustratinglyhard-frequently impos-sible-to-compare acrosscountries.Ex-periencesof the "applesand oranges"variety such as this have for decadesdiscouraged ruecomparative esearchin the socialsciences.Thechanging cene

The rapidlyevolvingtechnologyofcomputerizeddata banks provides achallengingpportunityo assemblemul-tinational data bases that provide acommonfoundationuponwhichteamsof socialscientistscanbuildtruly ong-term,comparativenternationalesearchprograms.Thesedata basesprovide heopportunity o definea rangeof theo-reticaland substantiveproblemsandtocombineanalysesof datafromdifferentcountries nto a singlepaperor book.This is in fact what the LuxembourgIncome Study (LIS) is designed toaccomplish.

PLANOF THEARTICLEThe next section of the article de-scribesthe LIS: its nature and its ob-

jectives. Even with the LIS in place,however, mportantssuesof cost, dis-tance, and time must be overcometocreatelong-termresearchprojects hatdo not undulypenalizeresearchers yforcing them to be away from theirnormal place of work for inordinateperiodsof time and at high cost. Onepotentialsolutionto thisproblem s thedisseminationof public-usedatasets toindividualresearchers.Due to respon-dent privacy and confidentialitypro-blems that usually restrict access tomicrodata ets,however, hissolution snot alwayspossible.Recentadvancesn


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THELUXEMBOURGNCOMESTUDY 97statisticalmethodologycombinedwithgreatly increasedsoftwarecapabilitieshave raised new fears concerningtheability of statisticalspies to penetrateeventhebestconfidentiality afeguards.Therefore,the second section of thisarticle discusses telecommunicationstechnologyin terms of what it has tooffer by way of a solution to theseproblems,usingtheLISas anexample.Wedescribeouruseof theBITNET-EARN-NETNORTH interuniversitytelecommunicationsystem.'Wearguethat because of the BITNET-EARN-NETNORTH ystem, heLIS is abletoovercomenot only distance,time, andcostbutalsothetechnological ndpoliti-cal or administrativebarriersthat itfaces. Here we find that rather thanposingan intrusive hreat o individualprivacy,modern elesciencehas offeredresearchershe opportunityo begintoexploreatrelativelyowcost anentirelynew and exciting realm of scientificinquiry hatwouldotherwisebe lost.The final sectionof the articlemen-tions the long-run mplicationsof suchsystems or comparative esearch,boththe potentialandthe difficulties hat itaffords.Weconcludebypointing o thechallengeof meeting heshort-term ndlong-termcosts of maintainingandex-pandingboth thecomparative atabaseand the telecommunicationsnetworkuponwhich t reliesasthekeyelementsin fostering uturecollaborative, ross-nationalsocialscienceresearch.

DESCRIPTION OFTHE LISThe LIS experimentbeganin April1983. Its purposeis to gather in one

central ocation,the Center orPopula-tion,Poverty, ndPolicyStudiesCEPS)inLuxembourg,ophisticatedmicrodatasets that contain comprehensivemea-sures of income and economic well-beingfor a set of industrializedwelfarestates.Becauseof the breadthandflexi-bility affordedby microdata,each re-searcher s freeto makeseveralchoicessuch as definition of unit-family orhousehold, for example; measure ofincome;and populationto be studied,such as males, females,urbanfamilies,orelderlyhouseholds.Thesetrulycom-parablemicrodatacreatea potentiallyrich resource or human-resourcendrelatedpolicyresearch.As of 1987,the LIS data bankcon-taineddata setsfromAustralia,Britain,Canada,Germany,srael,Norway,Swe-den, Switzerland, nd he UnitedStates.Datasets romHolland,Denmark, taly,Finland,France,and Spainwill likelybe added in 1988. Table 1 gives anoverviewof thesedatasetsby country,data-set name and size, income year,datasamplingrame,andrepresentative-ness of thepopulation.The data base consists of incomemicrodata etspreparedaccording o acommonplan,basedoncommondefini-tionsof income-by source-taxes, andfamilyandhouseholdcompositionandcharacteristics.Spouses' earningsandaverage annual wage rates-earningsdividedbyhoursworked-are separatelyrecorded as well. This resource hasalreadyprovedextremelyuseful n bothbasic and appliedsocial andeconomicresearchconcernedwith such human-resourcessuesas

-the distributionof householdin-comeandtherelativencomeposi-tions of the old and the young,urbanand ruralresidents,and othergroups of policy interest, such assingle parents;1. "BITNET" stands for "Because It's TimeNetwork"; "EARN" stands for "European Aca-demic Research Network." NETNORTH spansCanada.


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98 THEANNALSOF THE AMERICANACADEMYTABLE 1AN OVERVIEW OF LIS DATA SETS

Basis ofHouseholdPopulation SamplitnCountry Data-set Name, Income Year (and size)* Coverage* FrameAustralia Income and Housing Survey, 1981-82 97.5 1 Decennial census(45,000)Canada Survey of Consumer Finances, 1981 97.5 9 Decennial census(37,900)Germany Transfer Survey, 1981 t 91.5** Electoral register(2800) and censusIsrael Family Expenditure Survey, 1979 89.011 Electoral register(2300)Norway Norwegian Tax Files, 1979 98.5 Tax records(10,400)Sweden Swedish Income Distribution Survey, 1981 98.01 Population(9600) registerSwitzerland Income and Wealth Survey, 1982 95.5* Electoral register(7036) and central

register forforeignersUnited Kingdom Family Expenditure Survey,t 1979 96.5# Electoral register(6800)United States CurrentPopulation Survey, 1979 97.5 Decennial census(65,000)

SOURCE: Timothy Smeeding et al., "LIS User Guide," LIS-CEPSWP#7 (Center for Population,Poverty, and Policy Studies, Walferdange, Luxembourg, December 1986).*Data-set size is the number of actual household units surveyed.tThe U.K. and German surveys collect subannual income data, which are normalized to annualincome levels.*As a percentage of total national population.- Excludes institutionalized and homeless populations. Northern rural residents-Innuits, Eski-mos, Laps, and others-may be undersampled.IIExcludes rural population-those living in places of 2000 or less-the institutionalized, thehomeless, people on kibbutzim, and guest workers.#Excludes those not on the electoral register, the homeless, and the institutionalized.Excludes foreign-born heads of households, the institutionalized, and the homeless.ttThe sampling frame indicates the overall base from which the relevant household populationsample was drawn. Actual sample may be drawn on a stratified probability basis, for example,by area or age.**Excludes nonresident foreigners and the institutionalized but includes foreign residents.

-the distributionof earnings forboth men and women and theirchangeovertheworker'sifecycle,includingthe transition o retire-ment;and-comparative studiesof the work-ings of the welfare state and its

policies toward the elderly, thedisabled,andtheunemployed.A substantive example

In September1985,a briefsetof tab-ulations and an explanationwas pre-


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THELUXEMBOURGNCOMESTUDY 99sentedto a NationalAcademyof Sci-encesWorkshopnDemographic hangeandWell-Being f Dependents,held atWoodsHole,Massachusetts.Oneofthemajor hemesof theworkshopwasthatone can learn a great deal about therelative economic status of U.S. chil-dren-under age 18-and theelderly-over age 65-by considering heseper-sons in relation to similargroups inother countries.Because relative economic status-poverty, ow income,andaffluence-isdependentupon family situations,wegroupedchild andelderlydata n awaythatseparatedhemasmuchaspossiblefrom other parts of the population,constitutedof middle-aged dults ivingwith childrenand adults living alone.Anexampleof thetypeofdatapresentedto the National Academyof Sciencesworkshopis shown in Table 2, whererelative poverty rates have been sep-aratelycomputedfor elderly persons,for children,and for all other adultsregardless f theirfamilysituations.Relativepoverty s measuredhereasall persons ivingin a familyunit withadjustedcash after-taxincome belowhalf the adjustedmedianafter-taxcashincomeof theentirepopulation.Asimpleadult equivalencescale counting thefirstpersonas 0.50 adultsandallothersas 0.25 adultswas used. Povertyratesaremeasuredas the percentage f eachtype of personwho meetsthe povertydefinition.Overallpovertyratesarealsocalculated or allpersons.InTable2, theoverallrateofpovertyis highest for the United States. Thepovertyrateforchildren s muchhigherfortheUnitedStatesthan for anyothercountry,whilethe U.S. elderlypopula-tion'spovertyrate sthirdhighest.Inallcountries but Sweden andCanada, adultrates are lower than the rates for childrenor the elderly.

Researchandenrichments nderwayThe look atU.S. economicstatus orthe NationalAcademy fScienceswork-shop s but one instanceof the usesmadeof the LIS data base to studyincome,poverty, he relative conomicstatusofone-parentamilies,of children,andoftheelderly,andthe overalldistributionof governmentcash transfers versusdirect taxes.2In addition,projectsto

addnoncash ncomeand to explore herole of women'searnings n familyin-come arecurrentlyn progress.The LIS has now movedbeyondtheinitialexperimental tage to provideadata bank that can be perpetuallyup-datedandexpanded o include hemostrecent data available for any and allnations that have high-quality ncomemicrodata ets and that choose to par-ticipate.The data sets will be updatedduring1988,adding1984-85cross-sec-tion data sets and the initialwaves romseveralnewEuropeanhouseholdpanelstudies.Researchobligationsandresponsibilities

The LIS Project and data set arepermanentlyhoused at the CEPS Re-searchCenter nLuxembourg.Thedata2. Furthernformation bout LISand addi-tionalexamplesof theusesof itsdatabasecan befound in workingpapers,available romCEPS,Cast Postale 65, L-7201Walferdange,Luxem-bourg:"An Introduction o LIS-The Luxem-bourgIncomeStudy"; Povertyn Major ndus-

trializedCountries"; IncomeDistributionandRedistribution";AgeandIncome n Contempo-rarySociety"; ComparativeconomicStatusofthe Retired and NonretiredElderly"; RelativeEconomicStatusof One-Parent amilies"; LISUserGuide"; Economic tatusof theYoungandOld nSixCountries";AnInternationalerspec-tiveon the IncomeandPovertyStatusof the U.S.Aged: Lessonsfrom the Luxembourg ncomeStudyand he International atabase n Aging."


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100 THEANNALSOF THEAMERICANACADEMYTABLE 2RELATIVE POVERTY RATES AMONG ELDERLY PERSONS,CHILDREN, AND ADULTS (Percentage)

Country Overall Rate Elderly Rate Children's Rate Adults' RateCanada 12.1 10.3 16.8 10.6Germany 6.0 9.3 6.3 5.7Israel 14.5 22.0 18.6 10.4Norway 4.8 4.6 5.6 4.1Sweden 5.0 0.0 5.2 6.7United Kingdom 8.8 20.8 10.4 5.4United States 16.9 17.4 24.1 12.9Simple mean 9.7 12.5 12.4 8.0

SOURCE: Timothy M. Smeeding, "Relative Poverty Rates among Childrenand Elderly in SevenNations" (Paper delivered at the National Academy of Sciences Workshop on Demographic Changeand Well-Beingof Dependents, Woods Ho!e, MA, 4-5 Sept. 1985).NOTE: The relative poverty rate is the number of persons of each type as a percentage of eachtype of person with family incomes, adjusted for equivalence, less than one-half median familyincome, adjusted for equivalence.*People were counted as elderly if they were age 65 and older.tPeople were counted as children if they were below the age of 18. Children's income is mea-sured by that of their parents.

arestoredonthegovernment f Luxem-bourg's central computers,which areaccessedviaseveral omputer erminalsat CEPS under the strict rules of thegovernmentof Luxembourg's ata ac-cessandprivacy aws.Onceresearchpapersor reportsarepreparedromtheLIS,theresearchersrequiredo make heresultsavailableasa LIS-CEPS WorkingPaper. In thisway we can document previous LISresearchfrom those interested n fur-thering he use of our networkandwecan providefor a statisticalreview ofresultsby LIS member-countryentralstatistical offices. While there is nochargefor reasonableuse of the LISdata by member countrieswho havejoinedfinancial orces ounderwritehemaintenanceand renewal of the database, minimal user charges must belevied on researchersromnonmembercountriesandinternationalesearch r-ganizations o payfordatapreparation:programmeralaries,data-set omputer

maintenancecharges,and transactioncosts.Costestimates ependonexpecteduseand hedifficulty r easeofproposedmanipulations.ACCESSTO THELIS

In orderto use the LIS database,asystemof communicationbetweentheresearcherndthe datasetis anecessity.Either he researchermusttravel o thedata,or thedatamustbetransportedothe user. Excludingthe possibilityofcomputerized elecommunications, e-searchers ouldaccess heLIS databasein Luxembourgeitherby travelingtoLuxembourgor by using traditionaltelephoneand mail services.These al-ternativesarebothcostlyandtimecon-suming,especially or transoceanic c-cessto thedatabase.Research-fundingorganizationsareextremely uspiciousof international raveldue to its highcostand hesupposed ersonal-consump-tion-that is, tourist-flavor of such


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THE LUXEMBOURG INCOME STUDY 101

endeavors.Moreover, uchtravel s dis-ruptive o the researcher,orcing nter-ference with normal job duties andhome life andrequiringacclimation oworkin a foreignenvironment.Ontheotherhand,thereareadvantageso on-site access, in particular he abilitytointeract with the expert staff whothoroughlyunderstand he data base,includingts nuancesand diosyncrasies.Because here susuallynoperfect ubsti-tutefor nteractiveace-to-face iscoursewith suchexperts,especiallywhen firstusinga dataset, remoteaccesssystemsface the challengeof developinguser-friendlymodesofdiscourse s analterna-tive to thisverbal nteraction.The usual and preferredalternativeto travel sforthe datacenter o createapublic-use-that is, completely unre-stricted-data file that can be exportedto the researcher t minimalcost. Be-cause of the strictprivacyrestrictionsand confidentialityassurancesunderwhich some foreign central statisticaloffices have loaned the LIS copies oftheirdatasets,however,LISpublic-usetapes are at present mpossible o pro-vide.Despite he ncredulityf Americanresearchers hoareaccustomed o pub-lic-use files in their own countryandconsequentlyfail to understandwhytheycannotbecreated nthe caseof theLIS, foreign governments an makeastrongcase for data accesslimitationsbasedonpoliticalconcernsaboutconfi-dentialityhreats.Censuses fthepopula-tion scheduled or 1981in the Nether-landsand1983 nWestGermany adtobe postponed due to public concernabout privacy,confidentiality, nd ac-cess to data. Similarprivacyissues inSweden have led to severecriticismofStatistics Sweden and, much to thedismayof allpersonsinvolved, a substan-tial increase in refusal to be included in

Swedishncome nd abor orceparticipa-tion studies. Due to such concernsasthese, the restrictionsplacedon accessto the LIS datafiles aresevere.Directaccess s restrictedo the staffof the LISproject enter nLuxembourg nder hesupervisionof Gunther SchmausandBrigitte uhmann,heLIS echnicaleam,who have swornto upholdthe Luxem-bourggovernment rivacyrestrictions.In summary,the dual problemsoflimited direct access due to cost anddistance,andrestrictions n secondarypublic-usedistributionof the data setshavecreateda severe echnicalproblemfor the LIS. Fortunately,a solutiontobothproblemsbecomespossibleduetoadvancesncomputer etworking, hichties geographicallydistant researchersto thecentrallyocateddatabase and tstechnicalsupportstaff.Although hereare telecommunications lternatives oBITNET-EARN-NETNORTH--suchslong-distancedial-upto a time-sharingsystem or use of commercialpublicpacket-switchedetworks-low ine-leas-ing costs and the absenceof store andforwardfees to individualusers makeBITNET-EARN-NETNORTHhe keyto the operational uccessof theLIS.3

BITNET-EARN-NETNORTHAND THE LISThe BITNET-EARN-NETNORTH

system is an electronicmail and filetransfernetworkavailableat some588academicand researchcenters in theUnited States, Japan, Canada,GreatBritain,Europe,Scandinavia,and theMiddle East. The diffusionof this net-workhas beenextremelyrapid. By the

3. Further information on the network isavailable from the BITNET Network InformationCenteratEDUCOM, 777AlexanderRoad, Prince-ton, NJ 08540, telephone (609) 520-3377.


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102 THEANNALS OF THEAMERICANACADEMYturn of the decade,virtuallyall majoruniversitiesand social scienceresearchcentersshouldbe connected o the sys-tem.4 This rapid spreadis due to twobasicfeatures: owcost and ease of use.A LIS userwith a BITNETaddress-log-on nameand computernode-cantypein amessage-a letter,program, rpaper, orinstance-which is then rans-ferredbyleased ines fromuniversityouniversity ostcomputer ntil treachesitsfinaldestinationntheUnitedStates,or to a link, which connects to theEARNnetwork iasatellite.Theprocessthenrepeatsocompletehe routewithinEurope,endingup at the LuxembourgComputerCenter.The message s heldatthe centeruntil t isretrievedbya LISstaff member.Once the message s re-ceived,the Luxembourg taffeitherre-plies to the messageor sends a datarequesto thecentral omputer nwhichthe LIS is stored.Accessing procedures

Inorder o facilitate heprocedure faccessingLIS data, two separateandindependent tepsarenecessary.First,the user, or potentialLIS researcher,must have enough informationto beable to request efficientlythe outputthat he or she desires. This requiresacompleteand user-friendly ackagetoserve as an introductionto the LIS.Second, the LIS staff must be able toprocessherequest ndreturnheoutputto theuserquicklyandefficiently,beingsure o protect heconfidentiality f thefile.

Once a potentialLIS user has con-tacted the project,the next step is tosendthe persona brief document hatdescribes he LIS and itsmodeof func-tioning.Researchers howish oproceedin obtainingdatamaythenrequest hecompleteuser packagefrom the LIS.Thispackage ncludes-a technical escriptionfeachcoun-trydatafile thatgoesintotheLIS,includingamplingrame, xpectedsamplingandnonsampling rrors,andotherpertinentnformation;-a list of definitions of variables,whichexplainsin detailthe exactincomecomponents romthe rawcountry data file that went intoeach LIS variable. For demo-graphicvariables,hisexplanationincludes the exact wording andcodes for such othervariablesasoccupation, ducation, ndmaritalstatusin the case of eachcountry.ForLIS ncome ariables,hemaxi-mum andminimumvalues,mean,median,andpercentage fpopula-tion receiving achtypeof incomeare includedalongwiththe nameof the income componentsfromthecountrydataset thathavebeenincluded n the LISvariable;-an institutionalnformation ode-book,whichncludes basicdescrip-tion of those incomecomponentsthat aresocial transferprograms:history,overalloutlays,eligibilityrules,andbibliographicources oradditionalnformationneach uchincomesource n eachcountry;-a list of standardrecodesof LISincome definitions-for example,pretaxincomeand disposable n-come-and otherrecodes-for in-stance, marital status; one-parentfamilies-for those who wish to

4. For a good overviewof the network,seeDanielJ.Oberst ndSheldonB.Smith,"BITNET:Past,Present,andFuture,"EDUCOMBulletin,21:10-17Summer1986).


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THELUXEMBOURGNCOMESTUDY 103

compare heirresults oearlierLISanalyses sing hesesameconcepts;-a sample data file containing arandomsampleof about 200 rec-ordsfromeachcountry.Thissam-ple is used to test data runs toensure computer software com-mands and correctspecifications;and-a package f technicalequestnfor-mation, includingavailable soft-warepackages ndEARN-BITNETtechnicalconventions or sendingrequests.A fee of aboutU.S.$20.00 s paidforthispackage.Thepackageprovides hepotential user with answers to mostquestions that one could initially askabout the LIS. Armed with such apackage,it is relativelyeasy to ensure

that timely, nonduplicative,and non-wastefuloutput requestsare sent andreturned o the LIS data centerwith aminimumof turnarounddelay. More-over,thispackage ubstantially educesthe amountof up-front nvestment hatthe researcherneeds to make in orderboth to understandand to access thedata file. Given test output from thesampledatafile,theresearcher illhavethe wherewithal o debugthe softwareused to requestthe data and will alsohave some idea of the sensibilityandutilityof theoutput tself.Thedissemination

processat CEPSOncethe request,or job, is sent viaBITNET-EARN-NETNORTHndre-ceivednLuxembourg,pecially esignedsoftware reads throughit, verifies itsconsistency,and sends it to the maincomputer in Luxembourg. At present,job requestscan only be processedusing

theSPSSXsoftware ackage.Eventu-ally, SAS, LIMDEP,andotherwidelyusedsocialsciencepackageswillalsobeavailable.The inished utput s returnedfrom the main computerto the LIScenter, where it undergoesdata andconfidentialityrotectioneview iasoft-ware that checksthat raw data is notbeingtransmitted.Thenthe outputfileis sent backto the researcher singtheBITNET-EARN-NETNORTHetwork.Thetwokeyportals frequestubmis-sion andoutputretrievalareunderthecontrol of the LIS center staff only.Distantresearchersanneitherdirectlyaccessthe data set via job submissionnordirectly eceiveoutputwithpositiveaction on their part. In this way, jobinput and output can be screenedtoprevent he violationof dataprotectionand confidentiality aws. While turn-aroundis not instantaneous,we hopethat overnight ob submissionandout-putreturnwillbecome he norm n caseswhereresearchersealizenot onlytheirlocal time at the time they submitthejob, butalsothe localtime at whichthemessagewillreach heLIScenter,whichis six to ninehours laterthan the localtime in theUnitedStates.While systemssomewhatsimilartotheLISare unctioningwithin heUnitedStates, such as the Surveyof IncomeandProgramParticipation SIPP) Ac-cess Centerat theUniversity f Wiscon-sin atMadison, heLISsystem suniquedueto its virtualworldwide ccessibility.Other ystems, uchasthe SIPP Accesssystem,are in placemainlyto facilitate

userunderstanding f a very complex,longitudinaldatafile suchas SIPP, forwhichpublic-userilesare availablebutnot usablewithout considerablenter-mediaryassistance.While he SIPPAc-cess Center does allow the user anopportunityo be introducedo thedata


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104 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

set more easily, user friendliness is itsprimaryadvantage. Maintenance of pri-vacyandconfidentiality,andovercomingthe costs of distance are the addedfeatures of the LIS EARN-BITNETaccess system.

LONG-RUN IMPLICATIONSJust as office and home are replacingcentral, on-campus computer facilitiesasthesitesof researchandadministrative

activities, in the long run it may provemore economical to work with data atgeographically remote locations thanfor each investigator o startfrom scratchby installing raw data at his or herhomebase-at least with large, complex databases, as the SIPP Access Centerexperi-ment has shown.As the LIS is beginning to demon-strate, however, remotetelecommunica-tions access coupled with input andoutput screens possesses the additionaladvantage of providing the data baseoperators with a means of assuringprotectionof privacyandconfidentialityto the suppliers of the input data sets.Without these protections, there wouldbe no LIS because there would not bethe input data sets that are its essence.While the uniqueness of the LIS databaseandofEARN-BITNET-NETNORTHare the strengthsof ourproject,however,they are also its weaknesses. Compara-tive social policy research is in its in-fancy. In its second year of operation,the LIS is at approximately the samestage of development that longitudinalhousehold panel data research was at in1969,the second year of the Panel Studyof Income Dynamics. While this panelstudy has gone on to create fresh andexciting opportunities and methodolo-gies for social science research,it took adecade or more for the tools, strengths,

and weaknessesof panel data analysis topermeate the social sciences sufficientlyto reallycatch on. Similarly, experiencewith empirical comparative social re-search is now a virtual unknown formost social scientists. The enormity ofthe enterpriseof learning to thinkcross-nationally is one that few have botheredto undertake and even fewer have mas-tered. The LIS collaborators strugglewiththischallenge almost daily. Regard-less of the user friendlinessof the techni-cal process for accessing the LIS database, meaningful interpretation of theresultsis somethingthat requires-as domost highly rewardinglife endeavors--time, effort, and commitment on thepart of the researcher. In this sense, thereal ob of usingthe LISisjust beginning.Another, more immediate concern isthat of ensuring funding mechanismsthat would provide the basic publicgoods that the LIS requires:maintenanceand upkeep of both the central LIS database and the EARN-BITNET telecom-munications system. By early 1988 weexpect that at a reasonable annual cost,the initial nine LIS countries will havejoined in a cooperative funding con-sortium that underwrites the basic costof LIS data-file maintenance and re-newal for five years. This funding willpermitreasonable usage of the LIS at nocost to researchersin all nine countries.As of January 1987, U.S. institutionshave been paying an annual fee tobelong to BITNET. The fee rangesfrom$750 to $8000 and is proportional toannual operating budget. There is nocharge for message transmission. Thecombination of low cost for both dataand telecommunications linkage willallow LIS users to achieve maximumeconomies of scale in the sharing ofdistributeddata bases.Under similar regimes,we can expect


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THELUXEMBOURGNCOMFSTUDY 105internationalollaborative esearch ro-jects and colleagueship o reach theirfullpotential.Underalternative igher-costregimes, speciallyortelecommuni-

cations, we are less sanguine aboutcomparative ocialresearch eachingtsfull potential.

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Luxembourg Income Study