This introductory video describes what the Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) study is about, how it has evolved, what kinds of data it offers for scientific research, and under what conditions the data can be accessed. This video may also be of interest to parts of the non-scientific community as a very basic overview of the study.
This tutorial explains who we survey each year. It illustrates the household-centered survey design and the methodologies used to follow respondents throughout the life course. It also briefly describes the sample’s evolution since 1984 and introduces the various subsamples that have been added over the years.
This tutorial introduces the different questionnaires currently used in the SOEP survey. It illustrates how we design the questionnaires to cover the entire life course, including important events, transitions, and moves into and out of the study.
This tutorial introduces the general structure of the Socio-Economic Panel Study and explains the naming conventions for datasets and variables in the study.
This tutorial introduces the different identifiers used for individuals, households, and interviewers, and explains how you can use pointers to merge information on different units of analysis.
Australian Political Scientist Bruce Headey was not only one of the first SOEP data users—he was one of the first researchers in the world to discover the value of the SOEP for research on happiness. Headey is a Principal Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research in the University of Melbourne. He is a specialist in welfare and distributional issues and at the...