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 researchers (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. Housing information is covered at least basically in all waves. The great potential of the SOEP is the possibility to link subjective data with registry information on regional context factors (such as population structure in the community, etc.). This allows for analysing changes in housing needs and expectations with regard to regional characteristics. Questions concerning mobility can be analysed, but the data might not be up to date. Although the SOEP continues to interview participants after moving into institutional settings, the data is not representative for this sub-population with specific housing needs and mobility limitations.

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
The household questionnaire assesses the majority of housing-relevant indicators in the SOEP. Not all indicators are available for all waves, but since 1999 basic questions have been assessed annually. The housing indicators cover: ownership status, quality of dwelling, housing cost, moving, neighbourhood surroundings and residential environment, residential history, type of dwelling, household amenities, and satisfaction with housing. With regard to mobility, the SOEP had a specific module in 1998 and 2003, but very basic indicators such as availability of a driver’s license or access to cars are assessed more often, but not annually. The mobility module covers existence, accessibility and use of public transportation on site; existence and use of cars and bike in the household; type of transportation used to go to work, go shopping, during leisure time, for day trips and to transport kids; attitudes towards driving, public transportation, leisure time at home, and environment consciousness. Besides the annual assessment of satisfaction with housing, satisfaction with living area, environment conditions and goods and services offered on site are assessed irregularly.

Linkage

Standardisation
The SOEP dataset contains various internationally harmonised standards (e.g. ISCED-97 (International Standard Classification of Education), ISCO-88 (International Standard Classification of Occupation)); the questions concerning housing are comparable to other major surveys, but they are not standardised.

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 data set 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.