The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) project, founded in 1983, is one of the oldest and best-known examples of cross-national social-science infrastructure. Some 29 nations and 23 sponsors team together to provide internet-accessible, privacy-protected, household income microdata to over 400 users...

This paper is prepared as a chapter for the Handbook of Income Distribution, Volume 2 (edited by A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon, Elsevier-North Holland, Forthcoming). Like the other chapters in the volume (and its predecessor), the aim is to provide a comprehensive review of a particular area...