Combined Firm Data for Germany (KombiFiD). Matching Process-Generated Data and Survey Data

Abstract

Kombinierte Firmendaten fiir Deutschland (KombiFiD) - Verkn?pfung von prozess-generierten und Befragungsdaten?. In Germany, process-generated data and survey data on firms are collected by different data producers. Each data producer provides access for researchers to its data, but the combination of datasets from different producers is not possible at the mo ment. A new project (KombiFiD) aims to overcome this limitation: firm data collected by the German Statistical Offices, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Federal Employment Agency will be linked for the first time. The project aims are twofold: to gauge the possibilities of linking selected datasets beyond the limits of individual labour market data producers and to provide a combined dataset to science, thereby creating new research opportunities. This paper de scribes the project, the selected datasets and explains potential matching prob lems. In this context we address e.g. the advantages and disadvantages of sur vey and process-generated data and some challenges we expect within the project.