Since 2001 the Statistical Offices in Germany offer access to micro level panel data that
linked information from various waves of a survey over time. These panel data enormously
extended the research potential of data from official statistics by allowing dynamic analyses
and control for unobserved heterogeneity via panel econometric methods. A second generation of
data sets which became available recently has an even higher research potential. These new data
combine information for firms gathered in different surveys (or from external sources) that
could not be analyzed jointly before. Merging firm level data from different surveys to
construct data sets that cover information on a wider range of variables than the ones
collected in any of these surveys one at a time is the basic idea of the project AFiD. AFiD
is an acronym for the German Amtliche Firmendaten für Deutschland (official firm data for
Germany). The papers in this issue present first results generated with this new type of firm
level data and discussions.
