Questions about birthplace information

FDZ SOEP
, , ,
1

Dataversion

SOEP Core v41i

Data Set

ppathl

Please describe your problem

Hi everyone,

I am currently using the variable birthregion_ew in ppathl (https://paneldata.org/soep-core/datasets/ppathl/birthregion_ew) and have a question about its coding.

The vast majority of observations are coded as „[-2] Does not apply“.

. tab birthregion_ew

       Birth place: German Federal Land |
                    (East-West Version) |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
[-5] Not included in this version of th |     17,521        1.20        1.20
                    [-2] Does not apply |    938,857       64.13       65.32
                         [-1] No answer |     39,740        2.71       68.04
                      [21] West-Germany |    325,879       22.26       90.30
                      [22] East-Germany |    142,075        9.70      100.00
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
                                  Total |  1,464,072      100.00

Could someone help clarify why so many observations receive -2 on this variable? I also cross-checked this against country of birth and found that some respondents who were born in Germany are also coded as -2 in birthregion_ew.

. tab birthregion_ew if corigin == 276

       Birth place: German Federal Land |
                    (East-West Version) |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
[-5] Not included in this version of th |      2,776        0.25        0.25
                    [-2] Does not apply |    610,286       54.48       54.73
                         [-1] No answer |     39,271        3.51       58.23
                      [21] West-Germany |    325,837       29.09       87.32
                      [22] East-Germany |    142,067       12.68      100.00
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
                                  Total |  1,120,237      100.00

Does anyone have ideas why it might be the case?

Many thanks in advance!

Cheong

2

Hi Cheong,

thanks for your question. The many [-2] values mostly follow from how the variable is collected and constructed:

  • The question on the region of birth was first asked in 2012 in the person questionnaire. In the following years it was asked only in the biography questionnaire, i.e. only of persons who newly enter the survey as adults (or, for young people, once they reach the biography questionnaire).
  • Additionally for newborn children, the Bundesland of the household in the survey year of birth is used, but only if the household was part of the SOEP in that year.

There is no information source for the following persons:

  • persons born outside Germany (the East/West code is not defined for them),
  • persons who left the panel before 2012 and never answered the question,
  • persons who have not (yet) completed a biography questionnaire, e.g. children not born into a SOEP household, who were already born when the household joined, and persons who never completed an individual questionnaire,
  • persons who not answered this question
  • children who entered the SOEP at age 1 or older

Since ppathl is a person-year file, a person without a source contributes all of their person-years as [-2]. Together with long-term respondents from the early samples who left before 2012 and with children, this explains a large share of the 64 %.

Best,

Jan

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