The original objective for collecting a detailed household information in Albania was to provide the data to support the research program "Decentralizing Safety Nets: Community Choices and their Impact on Households." One of the main components of the research program was the evaluation of the distributional impact of the efforts of decentralizing the social assistance program, the Ndhime Ekonomica (NE), at the household level. The data collected for the Employment and Welfare Survey include information on household composition, education, current and past employment, level of expenditure, health outcomes, and other important household characteristics such as assets and quality of housing. The data collected include all dimensions of household characteristics which makes it important in analyzing the original goals of the research project as well as to perform many other welfare and poverty studies. The survey covered approximately 1,500 households in rural and urban areas, excluding Tirana. The data collection took place between August and November 1996.
