Cross-National Equivalent File

The Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) contains data from general population household-based panel surveys fielded in Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Korea, Russia, Switzerland and the United States. Each of these countries fields a longitudinal survey of households and their inhabitants. All of the surveys follow the set of people living in the set of households surveyed initially. With the exception of the Japan Household Panel Study, all of the surveys also follow the members of the original households, labeled as "original sample members" when they move away and form new households. Almost all of the surveys also follow people who joined a household of an "original sample member" (through marriage or cohabitation). Researchers at institutions in each country collaborate with CNEF to harmonize a subset of the data from each survey. The harmonized data get used, individually or as a set, by researchers who compare social and economic outcomes over time and across countries. Researchers exploit a cross-national design to understand whether differences in observed outcomes can be explained by differences in policies, social, and economic situations one observes across countries. The CNEF is managed by Dean Lillard and Temur Akhmedov at the Department of Human Sciences at The Ohio State University (US).