German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Principal Investigator(s): German Institute of Economic Research (DIW)

Summary: Begun in 1984, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is a wide-ranging representative longitudinal study of private households, and it is housed at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. The SOEP provides information on all household members, consisting of Germans living in the old and new German states, foreigners, and recent immigrants to Germany. In 2000, there were more than 12,000 households and more than 20,000 persons sampled. Some of the many topics inc... (more info)

• These data are not available from ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners directly (via DIW Berlin: About the SOEP German Socio-Economic Panel) for details on obtaining the data and documentation.

Summary:   Begun in 1984, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is a wide-ranging representative longitudinal study of private households, and it is housed at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. The SOEP provides information on all household members, consisting of Germans living in the old and new German states, foreigners, and recent immigrants to Germany. In 2000, there were more than 12,000 households and more than 20,000 persons sampled. Some of the many topics include household composition, occupational and family biographies, employment, earnings, health and satisfaction indicators, as well as topical modules covering such subjects as social security, education and training, allocation of time, and family and social services. The data are available to researchers in Germany and abroad in SPSS, SAS, TDA, STATA, and ASCII format for immediate use. Extensive documentation in English and German is available online. The SOEP data are available in German and English, alone or in combination with data from other international panel surveys (e.g., the Cross-National Equivalent Files which contain panel data from Canada, Germany, and the United States). The public use file of the SOEP with anonymous microdata is provided free of charge (plus shipping costs) to universities and research centers. The individual SOEP datasets cannot be downloaded from the DIW Web site due to data protection regulations. Use of the data is subject to special regulations, and data privacy laws necessitate the signing of a data transfer contract with the DIW.

Subject Terms:   education, family background, health, household composition, job history, life satisfaction, living conditions, occupational mobility, older adults, political change, social change, social indicators, Social Security, social services, time utilization, wages and salaries

Geographic Coverage:   Germany, Global

Data Collection Notes:

These data are not available from ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners directly for details on obtaining the data and documentation