German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)

Summary

The SOEP is one of the most important German data sets to analyse life-courses. It was started in 1984 as a longitudinal survey of private households and persons. The central aim of this panel study is to collect representative microdata on persons, households and families in order to measure stability and change in living conditions by following principally a micro-economic approach enriched with sociology and political science variables (see: DTC. Desktop Companion to the SOEP, http://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.38951.de/dtc.409713.pdf#page=15). Since the SOEP was – from the very beginning – designed with the intention to be used by national and international researches (cf. http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/60184/diw_sp0001.pdf:7f), its availability and usability for English-speaking researchers is excellent. It contains a wide variety of topics and a combination of objective and subjective indicators. The SOEP provides rich data on the issue „Social Systems and Welfare State“, such as items on education, training and qualification, on labour market and occupational dynamics and on earnings, income and social security. Documentation of the data and support by the Research Data Centre at the DIW are excellent.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same
Survey different

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire

Access to data

Conditions of access
On site access, downloadable files, DVD/CD after agreement, open access, data available only for scientific community, etc. In accordance with the data protection law, the individual SOEP data sets cannot be downloaded directly from the homepage. Moreover, the data are also subject to regulations limiting their use to scientific purposes. A DVD will be sent via certified mail for a price of 30€ + 8€ forwarding expenses.

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
anonymised microdata

Formats available
The microdata from the Socio-Economic Panel are available in CSV, SAS, SPSS, and STATA format. Due to the large volume of data, they can only be analysed effectively using statistical software (SPSS; Stata; R; SAS and others).

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
The SOEP consists of a complex system of partial samples which have been integrated in different years into the panel. Sub-Samples: • Sample A: Residents in the FRG (1984) • Sample B: Foreigners in the FRG (1984) sample size A + B= 12,245 individuals • Sample C: German Residents in the GDR (1990), sample size of 4,453 individuals • Sample D: Immigrants (1994/95), sample size of 1,078 individuals • Sample E: Refreshment (1998), sample size of 1,923 individuals • Sample F: Innovation (2000), sample size of 10,890 individuals • Sample G: Oversampling of High Income (2002), sample size of 2,671 individuals • Sample H: Refreshment (2006), sample size of 2,616 individuals • Sample J: Incentivation (2009), sample size of 2,509 individuals • Sample K: Increase (2011), sample size of 5,161 individuals Total Samples: Complete sample size for selected years: 1984: 12,245 individuals; 1990: 13,971 individuals; 1995: 13,768 individuals; 1998: 14,692 individuals; 2000: 24,582 individuals; 2002: 23,443 individuals; 2006: 22,665 individuals; 2007: 21,7232 individuals, 2008: 19,945 individuals; 2009: 18,602 individuals, 2010: 17,156 individuals, 2011: 21,336 individuals

First year of collection
1984 (Western Germany), 1990 (Eastern Germany)

Stratification if applicable
region (Federal States)

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
National coverage. Access policies for regional information: • NUTS1 level: standard-DVD • NUTS2 level: extra CD with password • NUTS3: SOEPremote or DIW Berlin • NUTS5/LAU2: only at DIW Berlin • Zip-codes, delivery area: only at DIW Berlin For more information see www.diw.de/sixcms/detail.php/237567 and http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.55738.de/diw_datadoc_2007-017.pdf

Age range
persons aged 17 years and older

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The SOEP provides data on • Demography and living situation • Personal characteristics and orientations (preferences, values etc.) • Education, vocational training and further training, qualification • Labour market and professional mobility • Incomes, property and social security • Health • Worries and satisfaction (general life satisfaction, area specific life satisfaction) All in all, the data set allows researchers to analyse these aspects in a longitudinal perspective, not only on an individual, but also on a household level. (cf. http://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.419219.de/soepfrabo_personen_2012_en.pdf).

Linkage

Standardisation
The SOEP is part of the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF). The CNEF contains equivalently defined variables for the US - Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS)/(Understanding Society), the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA), the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), the Swiss Household Panel (SHP), the Korean Labour and Income Panel survey (KLIPS), and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). The data are designed to allow cross-national researchers to access a simplified version of these panels with guidelines for formulating equivalent variables across countries (cf. http://www.human.cornell.edu/PAM/Research/Centers-Programs/German-Panel/cnef.cfm and http://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.77260.de/schmoller_frick_etal_2007.pdf). The SOEP dataset contains various internationally harmonised standards, such as • ISCO-88 (International Standard Classification of Occupation), • ISCED-97 (International Standard Classification of Education) • NACE (Nomenclature des statistiques des activités économiques de la Communauté européenne - Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community), • KLAS (occupational classification of the German Federal Statistical Office), • ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status), • EGP (Erikson and Goldthorpe Class Category), • SIOPS (Treimans Standard Int. Occupation Prestige Score), • MPS (Magnitue-Prestige Scala - Wegener), • CASMIN (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations)

Possibility of linkage among databases
The linkage among databases is not possible.

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
The Research Data Centre provides detailed information on known bugs and fixes on their website: http://www.diw.de/en/diw_02.c.222856.en/known_bugs/fixes.html

Breaks
The names of variables might change over the waves, but the Research Data Centre of the SOEP provides detailed information on changes in the data set on their website: http://www.diw.de/en/diw_02.c.238122.en/changes_in_the_dataset.html and a web based documentation system available at http://panel.gsoep.de/soepinfo. Moreover, the data set includes a variety of generated variables which do not change.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
The Research Data Centre of the SOEP provides detailed information on changes in the dataset on their website: http://www.diw.de/en/diw_02.c.238122.en/changes_in_the_dataset.html.

Governance

Contact information
Michaela Engelmann
Das Sozio-oekonomische Panel, DIW Berlin
Mohrenstraße 58
10117 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 30 89789-292
Email: soepmail(at)diw.de
Url: http://www.diw.de/en/diw_02.c.222517.en/data.html

Timeliness, transparency
Data are usually collected from February to September and released in the late summer of the following year.