GSOEP / SOEP-Core. The longest-running European household panel (since 1984), covering ~30,000 individuals in ~15,000 households annually. Workhorse for German labour, family, migration, life-satisfaction and inequality research; harmonised with CNEF for cross-country comparison.
SOEP-Core v38 (1984-2021) · updated: 2023-04 · official pageGerman Socio-Economic Panel — SOEP-Core (v38) registers 17 variables — 5 commonly used as dependent variables, 4 as core regressors and 12 as controls. Common research directions for this dataset include: Income and life satisfaction in Germany, Migration background and employment.
Income and life satisfaction in Germany: DV p11101, IV i11110, controls d11101, d11102ll, d11108.
Migration background and employment: DV e11102, IV migback, controls d11101, d11102ll, d11108.
| name | label | type/role | data file | description · keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pid | Person Identifier (Never-changing) Person Identifier (cross-wave) | identifier / identifier | ppfad | Stable cross-wave individual identifier — the canonical SOEP person key pidpersonid |
| hid | Household Identifier (Year-specific) Household Identifier (year-specific) | identifier / identifier | pequiv | Year-specific household identifier (changes when households split) hidhousehold |
| syear | Survey Year Survey Year | identifier / control | pequiv | Calendar survey year — panel time index yearwavesyear |
| phrf | Person Cross-sectional Weight Person Cross-sectional Weight | continuous / control | pequiv | Cross-sectional individual weight (≈ household weight × HH-size adjustment) weight |
| d11101 | Age Age (years) | continuous / control | pequiv | Age in years (CNEF-harmonised) age |
| d11102ll | Sex Sex | binary / control | pequiv | Sex of respondent (CNEF-harmonised) sexgender |
| d11104 | Marital Status Marital Status (CNEF, harmonised) | categorical / control | pequiv | Marital status (CNEF coding) maritalmarriage |
| d11108 | Highest Education (ISCED-1997) Highest Education — ISCED-1997 (CNEF) | ordinal / iv,control | pequiv | Highest education in ISCED-1997 categories educationisced |
| i11102 | Pre-government Household Income Pre-government Household Income (€, real) | continuous / iv,control | pequiv | Pre-tax pre-transfer household income (real €, CNEF) incomehouseholdpre-tax |
| i11110 | Post-government Household Income Post-government Household Income (€, real) | continuous / dv,iv | pequiv | Post-tax post-transfer household income (real €, CNEF) incomehouseholdpost-tax |
| ijob1 | Annual Labour Earnings Annual Labour Earnings (€) | continuous / dv,iv | pequiv | Annual labour earnings of respondent (€) wageearningslabour |
| e11101 | Annual Hours Worked Annual Hours of Work | continuous / dv,control | pequiv | Annual hours of work (CNEF) hourswork |
| e11102 | Employment Status Employment Status (CNEF) | categorical / control | pequiv | Annual employment status employmentlabour |
| m11125 | Self-rated Health Self-rated Health (5-pt) | ordinal / dv,control | pequiv | Self-rated general health (5-pt) healthself-rated |
| p11101 | Life Satisfaction Life Satisfaction (0-10) | ordinal / dv | pequiv | Overall life satisfaction (0=totally unsatisfied, 10=totally satisfied) satisfactionwellbeinghappiness |
| l11101 | State of Residence Federal State (Bundesland) | categorical / control | pequiv | Federal state of residence statebundeslandregion |
| migback | Migration Background Migration Background | categorical / control | ppfad | Migration background migrationimmigrant |
The codebook is an open lookup. The Wizard consumes the same codebook to drive code generation — upload your data and the system auto-recognises variables, applies cleaning rules, recommends research designs, runs regressions and produces a Word report.