German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)

Summary

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is a household panel study like the PSID (Panel study of Income Dynamics in the US) and the BHPS (British Household Panel Study). 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. Occupational dynamics, employment histories and several characteristics of the current employment, as well as other work-related issues can be analysed. These can be linked with other aspects, such as health or wellbeing. The dataset allows for the analysis of individual life-courses, as well as trends over time. Moreover, all aspects cannot only be analysed on an individual, but also on a household level. However, apart from a few questions on partial retirement or work beyond retirement, it contains neither special questions concerning older workers nor does it provide information on employers’ behaviour (personnel measures for older workers etc.).

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 (West Germany), 1990 (East 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
In addition to aspects such as wellbeing, health, education and housing, employment-related questions and earnings and income can be analysed in particular detail. The data set does not only include a wide variety of questions on current employment (e.g. working hours, working overtime, correspondence with trained occupation, number of employees in the company, type of employment contract, job as part of job-creation measure or ‘1EuroJob’, commuting, individual preferences concerning working hours and days, partial retirement, industry, occupation, monthly salary, bonuses and benefits besides salary), but also information on the very first and the last job (e.g. when and how did it end, existence of new job prospect etc.), and hence allows observation of employment histories and occupational dynamics. Moreover, the survey includes information on job satisfaction, on job-related expectations (e.g. the estimated probability of losing the job, or chances on the labour market in case of job loss) and also captures secondary employment/work beyond retirement (cf. http://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.419219.de/soepfrabo_personen_2012_en.pdf). All in all, the data set allows for an analysis of these aspects in a longitudinal perspective, not only on an individual, but also on a household level.

Linkage

Standardisation
The SOEP is part of the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF). The CNEF contains equivalently defined variables for eight major surveys in eight countries: the US, Germany, Britain, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Korea and Russia. (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 (Magnitude-Prestige Scala - Wegener), • CASMIN (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations)

Possibility of linkage among databases
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.