Comparative social science research requires comparable data across countries, especially data at the level of individual people and households (microdata). More and more international databases are becoming available to researchers. Some result from cross-national projects adopting ex-ante harmonisation approaches such as developing common concepts, tools and protocols. There have also been significant ex-post harmonisation projects seeking to create comparable datasets by combining multiple existing data sources. It details major sources of harmonised data and provides references for those looking to harmonise existing data sources as part of a research project.

Increased understanding of harmonising data.