The 1997 Panama Living Standards Survey (Encuesta de Niveles de Vida - ENV) provides individual level and household level socio-economic data from 4,945 households. All stages of the survey were performed by the Panamanian Ministry of Planning and Economic Policies (Ministerio de Planificación y Política Económica - MIPPE) with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. MIPPE has given permission to the World Bank to distribute the data base from the Encuesta de Niveles de Vida 1997.

The unit of observation for the family relationships, education, health, economic activity, fecundity, and migration sections of the survey is the individual; and for housing, consumption, household enterprise, and agro-pastoral activities, the unit of observation is the household. The household is defined as the person or collection of persons, whether related or not, that habitually live in the same private dwelling, occupying it in part or in whole, and that tend to their life needs together.

For the best use of the database, it is highly recommended that users read all of the documentation that is provided for using the data (see below "Documentation for the 1997 Panama ENV").

Data files and necessary supporting documentation can be downloaded from the Net. To obtain the data, first read the sections describing the formats of the data and documentation. Download the documentation, then fill in the 'Data Use Agreement Form', and finally download the data.

• Description of Document Formats

  General description of PDF and PostScript formats

• Description of Data Formats

  General description of ASCII, Stata, and SAS portable data formats

• Documentation for the 1997 Panama ENV

  Questionnaires, Codebooks, and other survey documents are available in PDF and PostScript format for downloading.

• Data Agreement Form

  The form states that downloading the data obligates you to cite the source of the data and to send copies of papers to Panamanian Ministry of Planning and Economic Policies and the LSMS Division of the World Bank. The form also requires you to state your name, address, and intended use of the data. Once you have submitted the form, you will be sent to a page containing links to the data files. If your browser doesn't support forms (or fails to forward you to the data page upon completing the form), contact LSMS and you will receive instructions on how to progress to the page with the data files.

Revised 6/11/98

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