Following the redesign of INDEC, the Observatory publishes in open access the guide that explains what changed in the EPH and how to continue comparing the series.

In May 2026, the Economic and Social Observatory of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) published, in open access, the EPH Methodological Manual – Observatory: a document that explains the changes in the 2024 redesign of the Permanent Household Survey (EPH) of INDEC and how to harmonize the series to maintain their comparability.

The problem: a big change, almost without an instruction manual

In the fourth quarter of 2024, INDEC thoroughly redesigned the Permanent Household Survey (EPH) questionnaire. This was a necessary and welcome change: it allows for the measurement of things that previously remained in a gray area (for example, the formality of self-employed workers) and improves the capture of government transfers and non-labor income.

What's striking is that, to date, INDEC has only published methodological documentation on one specific aspect: the direct measurement of informal employment ( INDEC Methodology No. 43, April 2025 ). The rest of the redesign—which variables were created, which were eliminated, which changed form, and how to reconstruct the series to avoid losing a decade's worth of data—remains without a comprehensive explanation.

That is the gap that this manual is meant to fill.

El Manual tiende un puente entre la EPH previa y la nueva, para no perder la comparabilidad de las series.

What is the EPH Methodological Manual – Observatory

This is the complete methodological documentation of the curatorial, expansion, and harmonization work that the Economic and Social Observatory (UNR) carries out on the EPH database. It covers almost a decade of evolution , from the 4th quarter of 2016 to mid-2026, and serves as the conceptual basis for the EPH Dictionary – Observatory.

Put simply: if you work with EPH microdata; in research, in a newsroom, in a public office or in a thesis, this manual tells you what changed, why it changed and how to continue , without breaking the series.

The manual is organized into three parts:

  • Part A – The 4T2024 RedesignThe context of the change and a review of the variables incorporated, eliminated and modified, including the method for reconstructing the aggregate income variables (pensions, non-labor income) from their new subcomponents.
  • Part B – The variables created by the ObservatoryHousehold identifiers, Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN), occupational classifiers (OC) and activity classifiers (AC) (AC), job tenure and deflated income, among others.
  • Part C – Historical BreakdownsEverything that was already affecting comparability before 2024: the change in agglomerations and population projections (1Q2019), the survey method during the COVID-19 pandemic, geographical exclusions, the weighting system and more.

One theme runs through the entire document: the "dual approach to formality" adopted by INDEC (at the job level for salaried workers and at the level of the productive unit for the self-employed) and what it implies for those who want to build a long and consistent series.

From breakdowns to bridges

The underlying idea is simple: properly documenting a methodological change is like building a bridge. A bridge between the "old" and "new" EPH (Permanent Household Survey), so that the data series can be read from beginning to end without any surprises. This consistent approach to redesigning a survey, which also expands what can be observed, is what we developed collaboratively, in a more conceptual way, in the working paper " From Breaks to Bridges " (Tessmer & Boggiano, 2026), available on SSRN for those who want to delve deeper.

Open access, for use and citation

The EPH Methodological Manual – Observatory is available freely and without charge, under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0):

And, as always, the interpreted, labeled and expanded databases live in the EPH – Observatory repository, where the manual is the methodological complement to the Dictionary.

    Manual Metodológico EPH – Observatorio. Informes del Observatorio UNR N.º 80 — Serie Informes Especiales N.º 27, mayo de 2026. ISSN 2683-9067 / 2683-9083. Autor: Germán A. Tessmer.

    FAQ

    What changed in the EPH in the fourth quarter of 2024?

    INDEC redesigned the questionnaire: it incorporated new variables (mainly to measure informality among the self-employed and salaried workers), broke down income into finer components, and discontinued some historical variables. This improves the measurement but breaks direct comparability with previous series.

    Did INDEC explain all the changes in the redesign?

    To date, INDEC has published methodological documentation on measuring informal employment ( Methodology No. 43, April 2025 ), but not a comprehensive document covering all the variables created, eliminated, and modified, nor how to harmonize the data series. The EPH Methodological Manual – Observatory aims to fill this gap.

    What is the purpose of this manual?

    To understand what changed in the EPH between 2016 and 2026 and how to maintain comparable series: reconstruct aggregate income, interpret formality under the new dual approach and take into account historical breaks (COVID-19, agglomerations, weighting factors).

    Where I download it?

    Free, available in the UNR Hypermedia Repository (RepHip) and the UNR Data Repository (Dataverse). The links are above.