The State of Replication Code Availability: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

Abstract

Providing replication code is an inexpensive way to facilitate reproducibility. However, little is known about the extent of replication code provision. Therefore, we examine the availability of replication code for over 2,500 peer-reviewed articles based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), one of the most widely used datasets in economics and other social sciences. We find that only 6% of SOEP-based studies have code available, but that this proportion has increased sharply over time. We provide evidence that the increase in code provision is driven by technological advances, individual researcher initiatives, and journal policies.