LabFam Individual Biographies harmonised family and employment histories based on panel surveys

Reproducibility in social science is often hindered by inconsistent data preparation and limited transparency. The LabFam Individual Biographies (LIB) project addresses this challenge by providing open, cross-national harmonization of life-course histories from five long-running panels: Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), Switzerland (SHP), the United Kingdom (BHPS/UKHLS), and the United States (PSID). LIB reconstructs spell-based data across three domains—fertility (number and timing of births), partnership (timing of union formation/dissolution), and employment (employment spells and job characteristics)—by integrating panel questionnaires, calendar modules, and retrospective components to recover events between waves and before survey entry. Outputs are organized as dated spells with explicit starts and ends, enabling duration and transition analyses within and across countries. We document variable definitions, harmonization and conflict-resolution procedures, and validation against internal survey indicators and external benchmarks. Implemented in R and released as open code, LIB supports complete reproduction, user customization, and linkage to complementary infrastructures (e.g., CPF/CNEF), thereby reducing setup costs and improving comparability.