Professor Fitzenberger, Director of the Institute for Employment Research, is going to give a keynote presentation at the NEPS conference. 

Abstract: Education and work are core human activities that are essential for economic prosperity and social development. To foster empirical research and evidence-based policy advice, researchers and policymakers need high-quality up-to-date data. However, life course data linking education, training, and labor market outcomes are still scarce in Germany compared to some other European countries. The lack of comprehensive linked data renders both monitoring and governing the education and training system difficult because the impact on labor market outcomes remains hard to establish. 
As one outstanding showcase of a linked dataset, the NEPS-ADIAB dataset combines survey data from the National Education Panel (NEPS) with administrative employment biographies from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). NEPS-ADIAB can be used in particular to address research questions that require very precise wage data over the life course. However, a comprehensive linkage with administrative education data remains a challenge.
Another showcase for the potential of linking administrative data and survey data at IAB is the evaluation of active labor market policies where the use of linked data is legally possible. Linking survey data and administrative data often requires the consent of the survey participants. This can be a role model for other fields.
The keynote address by Prof. Fitzenberger, Director of the IAB, will elaborate the potential of linked data for labor market and educational research.