Biographical data of selected social insurance agencies in Germany (BASID 2007)

Summary

The Research Data Centre of the Federal Employment Agency in the Institute for Employment Research (FDZ BA/IAB) and the Research Data Centre of the German Pension Insurance (FDZ-RV) offer longitudinal individual-level data sets. These data sets contain, on the one hand, information on the social security notifications and, on the other hand, characteristics of the administrative procedures of both institutions. In each institution, only information about the accomplishment of their own current tasks is recorded. The ambition of this project is to compile a common data set which contains data of the RV and the BA, respectively the IAB. The richness of information on individuals will be increased through filling up gaps in the single data sources with information of the other data source. This will provide new opportunities for scientific research. The combination of different data sources also supports the improvement of the quality of administrative records. (Source: http://doku.iab.de/fdz/reporte/2011/DR_09-11.pdf) The sample is very large and data have a high validity and correctness. It is possible to carry out differentiated analyses in small groups. Data comprise a large time frame – the whole insurance biography. There are no non-responses or memory failures. A comprehensive catalogue of items on the employment biography is recorded. The sample is very complex, descriptive results have to be analysed with sample weights. Only biographical information that is connected to pension insurance is recorded. Information on civil servants, occupationally insured (berufsständisch Versicherte) and foreigners without permanent residence status are missing. Information on (married) couples and households are also missing. There are no data on men and their children.

Type of data

Data Source
Registry

Type of Study
Survey same
Cohort study

Data gathering method
Registries

Access to data

Conditions of access
Datasets are made available by the Research Data Centre; data are provided to the scientific community as a Scientific Use File (SUF), as well as a weakly anonymised data set accessible by on-site use.

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

Formats available
Scientific Use Files: SPSS, STATA, SAS

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Data was collected in 2007 and had a sample size of 60,809 individuals.

First year of collection
2007

Stratification if applicable
Disproportional stratified random sample, stratified by insurance provider, sex, nationality and cohort.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
West Germany, East Germany

Age range
Sample: 30 to 67 years, Persons with a valid contributions account with the German Pensions Insurance as at 31.12.2007

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The data set connects longitudinal information from the pension insurance accounts with biographical data from the Federal Employment Agency (BA). Information by the Sample of Pension Insurance Accounts includes employment, unemployment, education, military/civil service, periods of sickness, child-raising periods, self-employment subject to social insurance, non-professional long-term caring (since 1995), minor employment (since 1999), pension and place of residence. Information by the data sets of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) includes profession, actual job, receipt of unemployment benefits, times of job seeking, measures during job seeking, information on the enterprise, places of residence and occupation, occupational status and working time.

Linkage

Standardisation
Classification of occupations: Klassifizierung der Berufe. Systematisches und alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Berufsbenennungen, Eds.: Bundesagentur für Arbeit Classification for Industrial Branches WZ73, WZ93, WZ03, WZ08 referring to NACE Occupational Classification by Blossfeld EGP – Classes (Erikson, Goldthorpe and Portocarero) Magnitude Prestige Skala - MPS

Possibility of linkage among databases
Linkage based on data user is not possible.

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
No information

Breaks
only single data set

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
only single data set

Governance

Contact information
Michael Stegmann
Forschungsdatenzentrum der Rentenversicherung (FDZ-RV)
Berner Straße 1
97084 Würzburg Germany Phone: +49 0931 6002-73519
Email: Michael.Stegmann(at)drv-bund.de
Url: http://forschung.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/FdzPortalWeb/?ViewNavi=StartSeite

Timeliness, transparency
Survey data is not involved, rather two existing registry data sources are matched.