A symposium on Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Survey: preface

Population surveys are a key resource for empirical economic and social research, and are used t oproduce a core part of the empirical evidence base for policymakers and commentators alike. Within this core, longitudinal and multidisciplinary household surveys have become a key tool in recent years as the availability of such data has increased. Yet, as a natural consequence of their design, such surveys can create complex analytical challenges for users that are not familiar or experienced. As part of our symposia series going forward, we will aim to present series of papers on some of the key data resources that fall into this category, with the aim of providing useful and up-to-date information about the research opportunities they generate and the key methodological and usage issues that arise for researchers working with the data.