Industry Conversion Tables for German Firm-Level Data

The relevance of microdata for economic analysis and policy evaluation has grown rapidly in the last decade. One reason for this, is that ever more data is collected and existing microdata are made available to researchers. The establishment of the Research Data Center (FDZ) was a milestone in this process in Germany. Located in almost every federal state, they grant easy access to the enormous treasure of official microdata (Zühlke et al. 2004). The creation of the AFiD-Panels, the German acronym for “official firm-level data in Germany,” also contributes to the accessibility of firm-level data by combining different official surveys and censuses. For more information on the AFiD-Panels, we refer to Wagner (2000, 2008, 2010), Fritsch et al. (2004), Konold (2007), Malchin and Voshage (2009), and Vogel (2009). There are several reasons why German firm-level data is of high quality compared to other sources. First, firms are legally obliged to deliver the requested data. Moreover, firms have almost no option to refuse participation once they are selected into a survey. Both reasons lead to extremely low nonresponse rates, e. g. less than two percent in the case of the cost structure survey of manufacturing firms (Statistisches Bundesamt 2016). Third, the data are collected and processed by the staff of the Statistical Offices. This ensures very high data quality, since these institutions have comparatively larger resources than private firms and its staff are well qualified. Finally, the data are usually collected such that it is representative at the industry level and, often, also at the state level.