EU-SILC-like panel for Germany based on the SOEP

What is the EU-SILC-like panel?

The EU-SILC-like panel is based on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and includes all EU-SILC panel variables for which the required information is recorded in the SOEP. Only a few EU-SILC variables cannot be replicated by the SOEP data due to a lack of information. The personal and household IDs of SOEP respondents remain the same in the EU-SILC-like panel, allowing users to merge the data with additional information from SOEP that is not part of the official EU-SILC data. You can find detailed information in our EU-SILC-like panel codebook. (PDF, 9.56 MB)

What is EU-SILC?

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) contains data from across Europe on individual and household income, household living conditions, individual health, aspects of child care, employment, and self-assessed financial situation. EU-SILC offers both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Up to this date, the official German EU-SILC is provided only as a cross-sectional dataset by the German Federal Statistical Office. As a consequence, Germany has been excluded from cross-country studies exploiting the longitudinal dimension of EU-SILC. Even though an official German EU-SILC panel dataset started in the survey year 2020, this panel dataset will only include panel information since 2020 and will not go back to the EU-SILC starting year.

What can you do with the EU-SILC-like panel?

• You can add the EU-SILC-like panel to other countries’ EU-SILC longitudinal data and conduct research requiring individual and household longitudinal information. Note that Germany still does not offer a longitudinal EU-SILC version. Filling this gap in the European panel data landscape is the main goal of providing the EU-SILC-like panel.
  
  
  

  

  clear

clear

• You can compare trends for specific variables and groups using the EU-SILC-like panel and the German EU-SILC cross-sectional data. In our EU-SILC-like panel codebook (PDF, 9.56 MB), we do this comparison for the full population for all EU-SILC-like panel variables and the German EU-SILC cross-sectional data. Below we show the comparison for imputed rent and capital income, which both reveal differences between the two data sets (note that SOEP indicates EU-SILC-like panel variables based on SOEP and EU-SILC is official cross-sectional EU-SILC data). How do trends compare for poverty, inequality and other measures?
  
  
  
• The comparison of EU-SILC-like panel variables based on SOEP with EU-SILC cross-sectional may lead you to the conclusion to use the EU-SILC-like panel variables instead of the German cross-sectional EU-SILC for your European cross-country analysis. Particularly if you want to analyze trends since 2005, you might prefer to use the EU-SILC-like panel because a new survey design of the official German EU-SILC since 2020 inhibits the comparison with results from the preceding years, as noted by the German Federal Statistical Office.