goes one step further, uniting company data across the boundaries of the individual data
producers as part of a feasibility study on a joint dataset. In addition, processes for statistical
matching of survey and process-produced data are being tested, e.g. between longitudinal data
of the Research Data Centre of the German Federal Pension Insurance and the DIW’s SOEP
(Rasner et al. 2007) or the IAB’s longitudinal data or in several of the IAB’s own projects
(Bender et al. 2008b, to quote one example).
In the field of data access, the research data centres are looking into the procedure of
remote data access. This access route has already been put to successful use in other European
countries. The researchers are provided with direct access to the microdata at a specially set-
up workplace in their own institutions via a secure internet connection. The research data
centres are currently addressing the issue of requirements for introducing this access route in
Germany.
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