SOEP Research: Survey Methodology and Data Science

The Reliability of Replications: A Study in Computational Reproductions

This study investigates researcher variability in computational reproduction, an activity for which it is least expected. Eighty-five independent teams attempted numerical replication of results from an original study of policy preferences and immigration. Reproduction teams were randomly grouped into a ‘transparent group’ receiving original study and code or ‘opaque group’ receiving only a method ...

Identifying Optimizers, Extremists, and Indifferents: Latent Satisficing Patterns in Panel Surveys

Data quality is known to be compromised when respondents cognitively shortcut the survey response process. This satisficing behavior leads to inaccurate and unreliable responses that are hard to compensate after data collection. Thus, detecting and understanding survey satisficing is crucial for developing and implementing effective preventive measures in longitudinal data collection contexts. We use ...

From Concurrent to Push-To-Web Mixed-Mode: Experimental Design Change in the German Social Cohesion Panel

Research shows that concurrent and sequential self-administered mixed-mode designs both have advantages and disadvantages in terms of panel survey recruitment and maintenance. Since concurrent mixed-mode designs usually achieve higher initial response rates at lower bias than sequential mixed-mode designs, the former may be ideal for panel recruitment. However, concurrent designs producea high share ...

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 ...

Dealing with Censored Earnings in Register Data

Earnings are often top-coded (right-censored) in administrative registers. The censoring threshold in the case of Germany is the limit value for social security contributions, leading to a substantial fraction of censoring: For example, about 12%of male workers inWest Germany are affected, rising to above 30% for highly educated prime-aged workers. This missing right tail of the earnings distribution ...

SOEP Annual Report 2024

The Beyondpareto Command for Optimal Extreme-Value Index Estimation

In this article, we introduce the command beyondpareto, which estimates the extreme-value index for distributions that are Pareto-like, that is, whose upper tails are regularly varying and eventually become Pareto. The estimation is based on rank-size regressions, and the threshold value for the upper-order statistics included in the final regression is determined optimally by minimizing the asymptotic ...

Introduction to Lab²: A MetaLab for Better Science

The replicability crisis highlights the need for more transparent and robust research practices. Lab² (Lab-Square) is a collaborative initiative using meta-scientific approaches to improve research credibility. Through large-scale projects like Many-Labs, Many-Designs, and Many-Analysts, we assess the generalizability of findings across populations, methods, and analytical approaches. Lab² also...

Regional Decline, Satisfaction with Democracy and Support for Right-Wing Populist Parties. Evidence from Germany (with Larissa Deppisch)

A consistent finding in research on the success of right-wing populist parties is that they gain support in regions that are peripheralized. In such regions, the decline of manufacturing jobs, public services, and infrastructure is thought to lead to growing frustration with democratic institutions and mainstream political parties, providing opportunities for right-wing populist parties to...

Learn to use the SOEP over lunch

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study is a representative panel study for the German population, collecting data on a broad variety of topics of everyday life, including general well-being, household composition, educational aspirations and educational status, income and occupational biographies, leisure time activities, housing, health, political orientation and more. With its long running panel...