Luxembourg Income Study

Address

LIS

17, rue des Pommiers

L-2343 Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG

Brief History

In 1983, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), a database containing harmonized microdata from several high-income countries, was founded by two American academics – economist Timothy Smeeding and sociologist Lee Rainwater – and a Luxembourgish psychologist, Gaston Schaber. With support from the Luxembourg government, these three scholars launched LIS, in cooperation with a team of multidisciplinary researchers in Canada, Israel, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Smeeding became LIS’s first director and Rainwater its first research director.

From 1983 to 2002, LIS was a division of the Centre d’Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques (CEPS), a research institute located in Luxembourg. During those years, LIS grew steadily, expanding from 7 countries to over 30. LIS also developed and launched its signature remote-execution system (known as “LISSY”),...