Exploring the benefits of volunteering: combining survey and administrative data in the Nordic ‘laboratory’

Abstract

Quantitative research on volunteering often relies upon either cross-sectional survey data or general interest longitudinal surveys with simple one-item questions about volunteering. In countries such as the Scandinavian where administrative register data are readily available for research purposes, an enriching survey data with administrative register data offers researchers the opportunity to gain a richer understanding of voluntary action. This chapter discusses the benefits and challenges of merging longitudinal survey data on volunteering with administrative register data at the individual level in Denmark. These benefits and challenges are explored by drawing on recent empirical examples from research on trends in volunteering over time, immigrant volunteering, and the effect of volunteering on wages. I conclude the chapter by summarizing the benefits of merging longitudinal survey data with data from administrative registers for volunteerism research and discuss possible limitations.