Harmonising French and German administrative DADS-EDP and SIAB data

Journal article

Administrative data are increasingly used in social science research, including for studying the labour market consequences of motherhood. Yet despite the growing use of such data within countries, cross-national comparative research remains limited because administrative data require substantial harmonisation before meaningful comparisons are possible. In this paper, we harmonise two rich administrative data sets suitable for comparative research on maternal employment: the French DADS-EDP and the German SIAB. France and Germany present a compelling case for such comparisons given their differing norms and policies regarding childcare and maternal employment. We document our harmonisation decisions on data structure, sample selection, employment measurement, and key socio-economic variables, and provide the full Stata code as supplementary material. We illustrate the potential of the harmonised data by examining how maternal employment trajectories evolve over time in France, West Germany, and East Germany. The analysis reveals substantial cross-national and temporal variation in employment trajectories after childbirth, highlighting the value of harmonised administrative data for comparative research on maternal employment.

Authors: Filser, A; Achard, P; Amend, IM; Frodermann, C; Gaede, I

• Alternative title: A practical guide on how to create comparable data sets on maternal employment
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Journal: Journal for Labour Market Research
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 8
• Publication date: 2026-06-11
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-08
• DOI: 10.1186/s12651-026-00430-8
• EISSN: 2510-5027
• ISSN: 2510-5027
• Language: English
• Keywords: J22; Motherhood penalty; J16; Administrative data; France; Comparative research; Germany; J13; J21; C81; Harmonisation; Data harmonisation