Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

From Strangers to Acquaintances? Interviewer Continuity and Socially Desirable Responses in Panel Surveys

In many panel surveys that rely on face-to-face interviewing, interviewers are repeatedly allocated to the same respondents in each wave. Researchers and fieldwork agencies argue that interviewer continuity can contribute to the quality of the data collected, for instance, by reducing panel attrition. However, there is almost no empirical evidence focusing on the effects of growing familiarity between ...

Sampling in Times of High Immigration: The Survey Process of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees

Over the course of 2013 to 2016, over one million asylum seekers arrived in Germany, around 890,000 of them in 2015 alone. The growing refugee population posed a major challenge for Germany’s policy makers, civic administrators, and society at large, in finding new approaches to registration procedures, housing, and social and economic integration. To design policies and programs that meet these needs, ...

Personalized Feedback in Web Surveys: Does it Affect Respondents' Motivation and Data Quality?

Web surveys technically allow providing feedback to the respondents based on their previous responses. This personalized feedback may increase respondents’ motivation and possibly the accuracy of responses. While past studies mainly concentrate on the effects of providing study results on future response rates, thus far survey research lacks theoretical and empirical contributions on the effects of ...

Comparing Self-Reported and Partnership-Inferred Sexual Orientation in Household Surveys

Research comparing heterosexuals with bisexuals and homosexuals in economics and the social sciences typically relies on two strategies to identify sexual orientation in existing survey data of general populations. Probing respondents to self-report their sexual orientation is generally considered the preferred option. Since self-reports are unavailable in most large multidisciplinary surveys, often ...

Big changes before big birthdays? Panel data provide no evidence of end-of-decade crises

Production of Last Resort Support: A comparison on Social Assistance Schemes in Europe with the Notion of Welfare Production and the Concept of Social Right

Families at the Margins of the Welfare State: A Comparative Study on the Prevalence of Poverty among Families Receiving Social Assistance

Biomarkers in the proposed UK Longitudinal Household Study

Social Stratification and Political Articulation: Why Attitudinal Class Differences Vary Across Countries

Voluntary activities in an ageing society: East and West Germany

SOEP respondents have been asked about their participation in voluntary activities ever since the Survey started in 1984. Here we provide evidence about stability and change in levels of participation over the last twenty years. It is often suggested that an ageing society requires, or would benefit from more voluntary and caring activity. More people are in need of assistance and there may be more ...