Documentation of Sample Sizes and Panel Attrition in the German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP) (1984 until 1997)

Abstract

The sample sizes of the English public use version of the GSOEP and the German DIW version differ by approximately five percent. The exclusion of 5 percent of the original data from the GSOEP was necessary to fulfill the requirements of the German data protection laws. Technically, this was done by dropping randomly 5 percent of the original wave 1 households. All persons and households which stem from these root households are excluded from the English public use version. As a consequence the difference in sample sizes is not always exactly 5 percent. The sample sizes documented below refer to the original DIW data base version.