Harmonized Latin American Innovation Surveys Database (LAIS): Firm-Level Microdata for the Study of Innovation

To create and promote comprehensive regional innovation policy, it is important to have valid, comparable, and standardized innovation survey data from different countries in Latin America. The Harmonized Latin American Innovation Surveys Database (LAIS) contains nearly 690 variables and 119,900 observations at the firm level. Data are from 30 national innovation surveys conducted between 2007 and 2017 in 10 Latin American countries. The dataset increases the number of countries of the region with publicly available microdata about innovation at the firm level. The corresponding IDB technical note describes how criteria were applied to identify and select variables, whose data measure the same underlying concept, from substantially diverse innovation survey methods and questionnaires used in different Latin American countries. The availability of these data will allow more scholars to research innovation in Latin American firms and address long-standing unanswered questions about the relative importance a variety of factors driving innovation decisions in Latin American firms.