EPH Ecosystem — Germán A. Tessmer

A decade of work with Argentina’s Permanent Household Survey (EPH): research on survey redesigns, methodological documentation, open datasets, and applied reports.

Since 2015 I have worked continuously with Argentina’s Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH), the country’s main household survey. What began as applied reports at the Observatorio Económico Social UNR evolved into a full open-data infrastructure — a harmonized dataset, reference documentation, and a research agenda on survey redesigns. Materials are ordered by hierarchy and recency: the most recent work supersedes the earliest reports, which are kept as part of the record.

Research

  • From Breaks to Bridges: An Architecture for Survey Redesigns That Expand Conceptual Scope (with Bárbara Boggiano) → SSRN → bridge_eph.R Companion script: rebuilds the aggregate variables removed from the raw INDEC user databases by the Q4-2024 redesign, applying the paper’s deterministic bridge rules (base R only).

  • Evolución del premio laboral en Argentina: variaciones para un período corto con información confiable, I trimestre 2017 a II trimestre 2018 MA thesis, Maestría en Economía, Universidad de San Andrés, 2019 (advisor: Walter Sosa Escudero). Wage premia by educational attainment estimated with Mincer equations and Heckman selection models on EPH microdata. → Repository

Data & Documentation

  • EPH – Observatorio. Encuesta Permanente de Hogares de Argentina. Explicada, etiquetada y ampliada (with Santiago Moleres & Laureano E. Hess) Universidad Nacional de Rosario, 2024. → Dataset → separa_eph.R Companion script: splits each person-level dataset back into its household and individual bases, preserving types, factors, and labels (base R only).

  • Manual Metodológico EPH – Observatorio Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2026. Methodological companion to the dataset: documents the Q4-2024 questionnaire redesign, constructed variables, and the methodological breaks relevant for longitudinal analysis. → Repository

  • Diccionario EPH – Observatorio Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2026. Reference documentation for the processed EPH databases. → Repository

  • Manual EPH – Observatorio (with Luciano Jara Musuruana & Patricio Almeida Gentile) Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2020. First-generation manual for the EPH databases compiled and extended by the Observatorio, superseded by the 2026 documentation. → Repository

Publications

  • Cruzar la meta y seguir corriendo. La Universidad Nacional de Rosario y la empleabilidad de sus graduados en el Gran Rosario (with Ana Inés Navarro, Vanesa D’Elia, et al.) Xanto Editora, 2018. ISBN: 978-987-42-9366-4. → Repository

Applied Reports

Early EPH-based reports produced at the Observatorio Económico Social UNR. They mark the starting point of this line of work; data treatment and methods improved substantially in the later documentation above.

  • Pre-Covid: Indicadores socio-económicos para AGR y Argentina (with Luciano Jara Musuruana, Diego Marfetán Molina, Lucia Papa & Patricio Almeida Gentile) Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2020. → Repository

  • ¿Cuánto gana mi vecino? Contrastes en Rosario (with Norberto Martín) Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2017. → Repository

  • La Mujer en el Gran Rosario, hoy (with Norberto Martín) Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2016. → Repository

  • Informe sobre Indicadores Sociales, IV Trimestre de 2014 (with Norberto Martín) Observatorio Económico Social UNR, 2015. → Repository