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This paper provides the methods through which the first version of the harmonized Latin American Innovation Surveys database (LAIS) was built. LAIS, which is made freely available through the Inter-American Development Bank, contains nearly 690 variables and 119,900 observations at the firm level from 30 national innovation surveys conducted between 2007 and 2017 in 10 Latin American countries, increasing the number of countries of the region with publicly available microdata. This paper describes how, starting from significantly different survey methods and questionnaires between countries, criteria were applied to identify and select variables from different surveys measuring the same underlying concept. It also discusses and guides how differences in survey methodologies may affect comparisons even after the harmonization of variables. LAIS includes data on innovation activities expenditures, sources of information and collaborations for innovation, innovation obstacles, outputs and effects, protection of innovation results, and general firm characteristics. Since LAIS significantly decreases the cost of making data comparisons between countries, it will allow more scholars to research innovation in Latin American firms and to tackle long-standing unanswered questions about the importance of framework conditions in LAC for innovation decisions in firms.

work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any noncommercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license.Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent. Table 1 in the annex provides some information on the innovation surveys that have been undertaken in the region since 1995. The aim of this exercise is to collect information on the experience of Latin American countries in the realization of innovation surveys as well as on their perspective on innovation (see questionnaire in Spanish in the annex). A focus was given to the typology of innovation activities, innovation results and obstacles to innovation (including the ones linked to the decision to innovate and the ones faced by firms that conduct innovation activities). JEL codes: O10, O31, C81, C82

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.

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