LMU-ifo Economics & Business Data Center

Big data research projects

In addition to infrastructure-related tasks, the entire EBDC research team pursues big data projects together with researchers from the ifo Centers as well as with external partners in academia and industry. What the EBDC team brings to the table is its experience in dealing with very large data volumes, cloud computing, and machine learning. The direct involvement in research projects is crucial to achieve positive spillover effects, to ensure a continuous exchange of knowledge and experience, and to avoid ending up with an isolated, simplistic administrative infrastructure and unnecessary services.

Provision and further development of ifo research data

The EBDC was founded in 2011 with the aim of making ifo (micro) survey data available to the research community without jeopardizing the confidentiality of individual (company) survey participants and their responses. To this end, the EBDC processes the ifo survey data of individuals and businesses collected by the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys into pseudonymized research datasets, well documented in accordance with FAIR principles. To further increase the options for analysis, the EBDC also uses machine learning to link the business survey data with companies’ external balance sheet and structural data and, upon request, with other external data. 

The ifo research datasets are constantly being expanded and further developed in terms of both content and quantity. They are then made available (once the application is granted) to internal and external researchers for purely scientific, non-commercial research projects (including documentation and metadata). Access to the datasets takes place in the secure and monitored environment of the accredited research data center at protected guest researcher workplaces, in set publication intervals, and in compliance with retention and protection periods. In addition, the EBDC submits the results to strict statistical control so that individual cases cannot be identified.

Research data infrastructure and services

As a research-oriented service institution, the EBDC’s mission is to facilitate innovative and challenging empirical (big data) research projects and to be the central point of contact and a knowledge hub for internal and external researchers. The EBDC data experts support researchers during all phases of the research process – including (the planning of) data collection/procurement, data analysis, data publication/archiving, and reuse of data. One element of this support is the provision of secure workstations for guest researchers and monitored cloud-based remote access solutions for working with sensitive (own and third-party) data. In addition, the EBDC acts as a data trustee and trusted research data repository for external data. The Center’s staff arranges all necessary methodological, technical, financial, and legal frameworks with the other infrastructure departments (IT, data protection, finance).

Scientific networking and practice collaborations

Knowledge exchange, networking, and collaboration are fundamental, especially in major big data projects that are complex in terms of content and administration. This is why the EBDC not only contributes to a wide variety of internal research projects, but is also involved in local, national, and international data initiatives. The EBDC regularly exchanges ideas with LMU’s Department of Economics and the Munich School of Management to coordinate the demands for and provision of (new) research infrastructure and services. A collaboration with the Department of Statistics links the EBDC with methodological research at LMU. Furthermore, the EBDC represents the interests of the ifo Institute in LMU’s interdisciplinary Open Science Center.

As the Information Infrastructure Project (INF) of the Collaborative Research Center “Rationality and Competition”, funded by the German Research Foundation, and in the EU Horizon 2020 project “PILLARS”, the EBDC supports and coordinates all the participating researchers’ data management efforts. In addition, the EBDC is represented in Germany’s National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) as part of the consortium for the social, behavioral, educational, and economic sciences (KonsortSWD), as a member of the NFDI section “Industry Engagement” and as an institutional member of the NFDI association. In the standing Research Data Infrastructure (FDI) committee of KonsortSWD, the EBDC is committed to securing and further improving the long-term availability of research data in Germany, together with the other accredited Research Data Centers and the German Data Forum (RatSWD).

What’s more, the EBDC represents the ifo Institute in the research network “LeibnizData” as well as in the Leibniz Association’s working group on research data. As a member of the “Statistik Netzwerk Bayern” , the EBDC supports the networking of official statistics, research data centers, and universities and research institutions – for example, by organizing workshops. Through the long-term cooperation with the Bavarian State Office for Statistics, the EBDC has access to official microdata at a (spatially and organizationally separated) branch office of the Research Data Centers of the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the federal states.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Elsas

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Institute of Finance and Banking
Website

Prof. Dr. Oliver Falck

ifo Institute
ifo Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies
Website

Prof. Dr. Andreas Peichl

ifo Institute
ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys
Website

Prof. Dr. Joachim Winter

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Seminar for Empirical Economic Research
Website

CESifo Cluster “Economic Research with Firm Data”