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Publication
A recent SOEP study of more than 42,000 respondents by a research team led by Theresa M. Entringer shows that younger birth cohorts in Germany are more likely to believe that they can influence their lives and maintain this sense of control into older age. While differences between genders and income groups have narrowed, disparities between people in East and West Germany have widened. Major life ...
15.07.2026| Theresa M. Entringer
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Publication
A new analysis by Daniel Graeber, Ulrich Schmidt, Carsten Schröder, and Johannes Seebauer, based on SOEP data and regional variation in infection rates, shows that individual risk preferences remain largely stable despite rising financial worries and anxiety. The findings suggest that a pandemic primarily changes the immediate decision-making environment rather than individuals’ underlying preferences.
Graeber, ...
15.07.2026| Daniel Graeber, Carsten Schröder, Johannes Seebauer
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Nachrichten [Abteilung SOEP]
As part of the SOEP-LEE2 project, AKempor (Working Group on Empirical Personnel and Organizational Research) will host a workshop at DIW Berlin on 26–27 November focusing on research related to resilience, crisis response, digital transformation, and cybersecurity.
The workshop emphasizes empirical research using survey and linked data on firms, employees, and households. New data resources from the ...
14.07.2026| Carsten Schröder
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Nachrichten [Abteilung SOEP]
Forum4Mica is a platform where data users can ask questions about SOEP data and its generation and receive timely answers from relevant experts.
Do you have ideas on how the SOEP can be improved? Forum4MICA is now also available for your feedback, suggestions, or ideas for improvement.
The platform provides a dynamic space for exchange where users can propose ideas for future data collection – such ...
14.07.2026
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Publication
SOEP data users can now request the mighist (“migration history”) variable and its accompanying information variable mighist_info for SOEP-Core v41 by contacting soepmail@diw.de. Both variables will be included in the upcoming SOEP-Core v42 release.
By introducing mighist, SOEP adopts the migration history concept used in Germany’s Microcensus, improving comparability with official statistics and ...
14.07.2026| SOEP Community Management
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Report
On July 8 and 9, 2026, the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) welcomed approximately 90 researchers from Germany and abroad to its user conference in Berlin. Every two years, SOEP data users from various disciplines—including the social and economic sciences—meet to present their current research and network.
Just a few days earlier, the German Science Council had rated the SOEP’s application for strategic ...
14.07.2026| Verena Neumann
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Personnel news
Lorenz Meister successfully defended his dissertation, “Essays on Economic Beliefs, Risk Preferences, and Political Attitudes in Contemporary Democracies,” at Freie Universität Berlin on 18 June. His supervisors were Carsten Schröder (FU Berlin, SOEP) and Panu Poutvaara (LMU Munich).
We congratulate Lorenz on this outstanding achievement!
19.06.2026
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Publication
A study conducted within the SOEP Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS) by Christoph Schmidt-Petri, Daniel Labarca Pinto, and Carsten Schröder with 2,295 respondents confirms that people are much more likely to attribute intentionality to harmful side effects than to beneficial ones.
The findings replicate a classic result from experimental philosophy using representative population data and highlight the potential ...
15.06.2026| Daniel Labarca Pinto, Carsten Schröder
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Interview
For more than 40 years, SOEP has been collecting information on living conditions, health, and social factors from approximately 30,000 individuals. Based on these data, Sabine Zinn develops synthetic health data that links different information sources and enable realistic scenario modeling. These models help researchers understand human behavior during crises and assess potential impacts at an early ...
02.06.2026| Sabine Zinn
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Publication
The Socio-Economic Panel’s 42nd year marked a turning point, as the recently published annual report shows. The SOEP’s vision for its own strategic expansion was evaluated by the Leibniz Association and the German Science Council (as the “great strategic enhancement”). This broad-based initiative aims to ensure the study’s continued sustainability through methodological and technical innovations. The ...
01.06.2026| Janina Britzke, Markus M. Grabka, Verena Neumann
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Report
On 13 May, the successful soft launch of a new Forum4Mica thread on the Geolinking Service SoRa took place in an online event with 100 invited participants. The Geolinking Service SoRa enables spatial analysis of social science survey data and contributes to socio-spatial research. It provides prepared geodata sets and linkage methods.
14.05.2026| Alexander Jung
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Report
The SOEP Survey Council welcomes Katrin Rehdanz (Kiel University) as a new member. In addition, Caezilia Loibl (The Ohio State University), Oliver Lipps (FORS), and Tobias Schmidt (Deutsche Bundesbank) have been reappointed for another term. After serving two terms, Philippe Van Kerm (University of Luxembourg) has stepped down from the Council.
01.05.2026| Simon Kleineweber
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Publication
Updated versions of the SOEP-RV VSKT2022 and SOEP-RV RTBN2023 datasets have been available since April 2026. The new releases expand the existing data with additional information for current research projects.
SOEP-RV links SOEP survey data with anonymized pension insurance records, providing unique opportunities to study life-course dynamics, social inequality, and the effects of policy reforms.
Further ...
30.04.2026| Jan Goebel, Markus M. Grabka, Carsten Schröder
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Personnel news
October 8, 1936 – † April 4, 2026
Professor Dr. Richard Hauser passed away in early April at the age of 89. With his death, the SOEP longitudinal study loses one of its founding fathers, long-time promoters, and consistently reliable supporters. Richard Hauser, together with his colleagues from the fields of economics and sociology, launched the SOEP in the early 1980s and significantly shaped its ...
15.04.2026
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Publication
SOEP researcher Cristóbal Moya participated in a large international study on the replicability of social and behavioral science research, which was published in the prestigious journal Nature. As part of the SCORE project, 274 findings from 164 scholarly articles were independently evaluated.
Approximately half of the findings could be replicated, although the measured effects were often smaller ...
03.04.2026| Cristóbal Moya
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Report
The independent, private “Kohli Foundation” has awarded this year’s Infrastructure Prize to the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Its selection committee emphasizes the SOEP’s role as a model and driving force in the field of data infrastructure—even beyond Germany. It also makes a significant contribution to advancing sociological research. The award is endowed with 10,000 euros and recognizes outstanding ...
01.04.2026| Sabine Zinn
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Publication
The SOEPnewsletter March 2026 is now availabe in English and German. If you would like to receive the new issues automatically by e-mail, please subscribe to the mailing list.
Enjoy reading.
13.03.2026| Elisa Grabas
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Personnel news
Former SOEP doctoral researcher Valeriia Heidemann successfully defended her dissertation, “The Long Shadow of Forced Migration: Parental Associations with Birth Outcomes and Early Childhood Development,” at Humboldt University (HU Berlin) on 10 March. Her supervisors were Sabine Zinn (HU Berlin, SOEP) and Anna Oksuzyan (Bielefeld University).
We congratulate Valeriia on this outstanding achievem ...
11.03.2026
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Nachrichten [Abteilung SOEP]
In March/April 2026 our online over lunch seminar series returns with one last workshop this year. The workshop provides a comprehensive, practical introduction to the data of the Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) on three Wednesdays during lunchtime. Participants will learn about the study's content, data structure, sample selection, and weighting strategy, along with an overview of the study documentation.
To ...
17.02.2026| Janina Britzke, Cristóbal Moya
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Nachrichten [Abteilung SOEP]
The call for papers for the 16th International German Socio-Economic Panel User Conference is online. SOEP 2026 will take place from July 8-9, 2026, in Berlin, and researchers from all disciplines are invited to submit an abstract. We particularly welcome contributions addressing meta-science, robustness, replicability, reproducibility, and open science. This includes, but is not limited to, studies ...
17.02.2026| Janina Britzke, Levent Neyse