Forschung SOEP: Survey-Methodologie und Data Science

How Many Brackets Should We Ask for to Derive Adequate Metric Information for Income and Wealth?

This paper investigates how the number of brackets and the choice of upper cutoffs in grouped data affect the metric approximation of income and wealth. The literature currently lacks a definition of what should be considered too few brackets or too-low cut-offs. Using German survey data, we show that more than six (eight) brackets and an upper cut-off at the 95th (97th) percentile are sufficient to ...

Immigration, Segregation, and Attitudes Toward Immigrants: A Longitudinal Multiscalar Analysis across Egohoods

Evidence on how proximity to ethnic outgroups shapes attitudes toward immigration remains inconclusive. We suggest this may be driven, in part, by the fact that studies rarely account for the role of residential segregation. We argue that how the minority-share in an environment affects majority-group attitudes will depend on how segregated groups are from one another. To explore this, we undertake ...

Introducing Open Data Format: A Platform-Independent, Non-Proprietary, Metadata-Enriched, Multilingual Data Format and its Implementation in R and Stata

This paper introduces the Open Data Format (ODF), a new, non-proprietary, multilingual, metadata enriched, and zip-compressed data format that meets the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. The data format is specified as a CSV file with the raw data and an XML file containing the metadata both compressed into a zip file with the .zip extension. Data files can ...

Refugees Send Remittances Abroad Less Often than Other Migrants

Remittances sent by refugees to their home countries has been a hotly debated policy topic in Germany over the past years and has led to the introduction of a payment card for asylum applicants. This Weekly Report investigates how the share of people living in Germany who send remittances abroad has changed over time according to their migration background (with or without a refugee background) and ...

Geflüchtete senden seltener Geld ins Ausland als andere Migrant*innen

Über Geldüberweisungen von Geflüchteten in ihre Heimat wurde in den vergangenen Jahren in Deutschland politisch scharf debattiert, was zur Einführung einer Bezahlkarte für Asylbewerber*innen führte. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, wie sich der Anteil der in Deutschland lebenden Personen, die Geld ins Ausland überweisen, im Laufe der Zeit je nach Migrationshintergrund – mit oder ohne Fluchthintergrund ...

Implementierung eines Gastwissenschaftsarbeitsplatzes im RDCnet

Im Rahmen des RDCnet stellt jedes teilnehmende Forschungsdatenzentrum (FDZ) einen Gastwissenschaftsarbeitsplatz (GWAP) zur Verfügung, über den Nutzende auf die Forschungsdaten anderer teilnehmender FDZ zugreifen können. Um die im multilateralen Kooperationsvertrag definierten technischen und organisatorischen Maßnahmen für den GWAP umzusetzen, empfiehlt es sich, restriktiv konfigurierte Thin Clients ...

Vertragliche Grundlagen zur Teilnahme am RDCnet

Forschende der Sozial-, Bildungs-, Verhaltens- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften arbeiten mit verschiedenen Datentypen, die häufig aufgrund rechtlicher oder ethischer Beschränkungen besonders sensibel sind und oftmals nicht originär für wissenschaftliche Zwecke erhoben wurden. Die Projekte des KonsortSWD1 haben zum Ziel, Forschenden und Institutionen, die zunehmend in multi- und interdisziplinären Projekten ...

Imputation of Missing Data from Split Questionnaire Designs in Social Surveys: Dissertation

Amidst the challenges of declining response rates and escalating costs in survey research, the adoption of innovative new data collection designs such as planned missingness and split questionnaire designs is becoming increasingly prevalent. This dissertation addresses the imputation of social survey data from split questionnaire designs and the methodological decisions associated with implementing ...

The German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP): Theoretical Background, Instruments, Survey Design, and Analytical Potential

The German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP) is a probability-based self-administered longitudinal study in a mixed-mode design (PAPI and CAWI) that is jointly carried out by the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The aim of the study is to capture the diversity of social cohesion in Germany from multiple perspectives, particularly regarding the extent to ...

Do talk money – Reducing income nonresponse in surveys (with Katharina Allinger)

Item nonresponse is a common issue in surveys. We implement an experiment to reduce nonresponse to income questions in an international household survey, looking at four different countries. Survey respondents are asked to report their exact household income. We randomize those who refuse to answer into two groups. In a follow-up question, the control group is asked to choose their income from a...

Do talk money – Reducing income nonresponse in surveys (with Katharina Allinger)

Item nonresponse is a common issue in surveys. We implement an experiment to reduce nonresponse to income questions in an international household survey, looking at four different countries. Survey respondents are asked to report their exact household income. We randomize those who refuse to answer into two groups. In a follow-up question, the control group is asked to choose their income from a...

Change in Body Weight of Older Adults before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Results from the Berlin Aging Study II

ObjectivesChange in body weight during the COVID-19 pandemic as an unintended side effect of lockdown measures has been predominantly reported for younger and middle-aged adults. However, information on older adults for which weight loss is known to result in adverse outcomes, is scarce. In this study we describe the body weight change in older adults before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown ...

The Performance of Multiple Imputation in Social Surveys with Missing Data from Planned Missingness and Item Nonresponse

Designs using planned missingness, such as the split questionnaire design, are becoming more and more important in social survey research. To ensure an acceptable questionnaire length, these approaches typically entail large amounts of planned missing data, which can be imputed after data collection. However, social surveys typically also include other types of missingness such as item nonresponse ...

Restrictions to Civil Liberties in a Pandemic and Satisfaction with Democracy

In times of crises, democracies face the challenge of balancing effective interventions with civil liberties. This study examines German states’ responses during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the trade-off between civil liberties and public health. Using state-level variation in mobility restrictions, we employ a difference-in-differences design to show that stay-at-home orders ...

Codevelopment of Life Goals and the Big Five Personality Traits Across Adulthood and Old Age

Since the new millennium, research in the field of personality development has focused on the stability and change of basic personality traits. Motivational aspects of personality and their longitudinal association with basic traits have received comparably little attention. In this preregistered study, we applied bivariate latent growth curve modeling to investigate the codevelopment of nine life ...

Validating an Index of Selection Bias for Proportions in Non-probability Samples

Fast online surveys without sampling frames are becoming increasingly important in survey research. Their recruitment methods result in non-probability samples. As the mechanism of data generation is always unknown in such samples, the problem of non-ignorability arises making vgeneralisation of calculated statistics to the population of interest highly questionable. Sensitivity analyses provide a ...

Measuring Expenditure with a Mobile App: Do Probability-Based and Nonprobability Panels Differ?

In this case study, we examine a novel aspect of data collected in a typical probability and a typical nonprobability panel: mobile app data. The data were collected in Great Britain in 2018, using the Innovation Panel of the UK Household Longitudinal Study and the Lightspeed online access panel. Respondents in each panel were invited to participate in a month-long study, reporting all their daily ...

SOEP Annual Report 2023

DECIPHE – Demographic Change and the Intergenerational Persistence in Homeownership in Europe

DECIPHE is the first project to comprehensively study whether and how profound demographic changes in Europe impact the intergenerational persistence of homeownership, considering variations across countries, regions, and birth cohorts. It adopts a life course framework on housing tenure, in which individuals’ homeownership is shaped by their household members’ preferences and resources and...

DECIPHE – Demographic Change and the Intergenerational Persistence in Homeownership in Europe

DECIPHE ist das erste Projekt, das umfassend untersucht, ob und wie tiefgreifend sich demografische Veränderungen in Europa auf die intergenerationale Persistenz von Wohneigentum auswirken. Dabei werden Unterschiede zwischen Ländern, Regionen und Geburtskohorten berücksichtigt. Das Projekt nimmt  eine Lebensverlaufsperspektive auf Wohneigentum ein, bei der die Präferenzen und Ressourcen der...