Jan Goebel

The re-use of research data is an integral part of research practice in the social and economic sciences. To find relevant data, researchers need adequate search facilities. However, a comprehensive, thematic search for research data is made more difficult by inconsistent or missing semantic indexing of data at the level of social science concepts (e.g., representing the theory language). Either the data is not documented at a granular level, or primary investigators use their ad-hoc terminology to describe their data. Consequently, researchers have to make great efforts to find relevant or comparable data. From the user's perspective, the lack of theory language in data documentation impedes effective data searches and thus significantly limits the research potential of existing data collections. Because there is currently no semantic model for indexing the data content, the specific challenge for improving data search lies in establishing concept-based indexing of research data. Research infrastructures need technology for the harmonized semantic indexing of their research data. The LORD concept registry aims at closing this gap by developing a registry of sociological and economic concepts and, following the FAIR principles, making this concept registry generally available to the scientific community. As a first step, we developed a basic data model for the Concept Registry using United Modeling Language (UML). All links between are created and managed in the form of so-called RDF triples. An annotation application allows for linking specific questions/variables to concepts. The application also includes the two SKOS-compliant thesauri, "Thesaurus Social Sciences" (TheSoz) and "Standard Thesaurus Economics" (STW) but could be extended to other resources like ELSST. We illustrate the application of the LORD concept registry with examples from three large-scale survey programmes (German Socio-Economic Panel, German General Social Survey, National Academics Panel Study). The initial focus is on variables and questions with overlapping content in the three survey programmes, as they form a sound basis for cross-linking with concepts.

In recent years, researchers have grappled with the phenomenon that public demand for redistribution has not systematically increased in response to rising inequality. Meritocratic beliefs have been suggested as an explanation for this observation, because they can help legitimize inequalities. Past research has identified local-level inequality, segregation, or diversity as important factors for how these beliefs might be formed and maintained. Different theoretical approaches have been advanced and tested to determine the direction and extent of these effects, producing mixed results. We put these theories to the test by focusing on a country in which changes in the level of inequality have indeed been met with equal changes in justice perceptions: Germany. Furthermore, we broaden the scope by focusing on local segregation between different socioeconomic status groups, rather than income inequality. To do so, we utilize geocoded individual-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), microm data, and relevant geospatial indicators from the INKAR database. We find some indication that residential segregation of status groups and isolation of high status groups is associated with less support of meritocratic beliefs, contradicting previous work. Additionally, we find evidence of urban–rural differences in the effects of segregation.

We study how land use fragmentation affects the life satisfaction of city dwellers. To this end, we calculate fragmentation metrics based on exact geographical coordinates of land use from the European Urban Atlas and of households from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Using OLS and fixed effects specifications, we find little impact on life satisfaction when aggregating over land use types. Looking at particular types, however, we find that it is positively affected by lower average degrees of soil sealing, larger shares of vegetation, and more heterogeneous configurations of medium and low-density urban fabric, especially in areas with higher population density.

The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) serves a global research community by providing representative annual longitudinal data of private households in Germany. The sample provides a detailed life course perspective based on a rich collection of information about living conditions, socio-economic status, family relationships, personality, values, preferences, and health. We collected genetic data from 2,598 individuals in the SOEP Innovation Sample, yielding the first genotyped sample that is representative of the entire German population (Gene-SOEP). The Gene-SOEP sample is a longitudinal study that includes 107 full-sibling pairs, 501 parent-offspring pairs, and 152 parent-offspring trios that are overlapping with the parent-offspring pairs. We constructed a repository of 66 polygenic indices in the Gene-SOEP sample based on results from well-powered genome-wide association studies. The Gene-SOEP data provides a valuable resource to study individual differences, inequalities, life-course development, health, and interactions between genetic predispositions and environment.

We provide a concise introduction to a household-panel data infrastructure that provides the international research community with longitudinal data of private households in Germany since 1984: the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We demonstrate the comparative strength of the SOEP data in answering economically-relevant questions by highlighting its diverse and impactful applications throughout the field.

Both lifespan psychology and life course sociology highlight that contextual factors influence individual functioning and development. In the current study, we operationalize context as county-level care services in inpatient and outpatient facilities (e.g., number of care facilities, privacy in facilities) and investigate how the care context shapes well-being in the last years of life. To do so, we combine 29 waves of individual-level longitudinal data on life satisfaction from now deceased participants in the nationwide German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 4557; age at death: M = 73.35, SD = 14.20; 47% women) with county-level data from the Federal Statistical Office. Results from three-level growth models revealed that having more inpatient care facilities, more employees per resident, and more staff in administration are each uniquely associated with higher late-life well-being, independent of key individual (age at death, gender, education, disability) and county (affluence, demographic composition) characteristics. Number of employees in physical care, residential comfort, and flexibility and care indicators in outpatient institutions were not found to be associated with levels or change in well-being. We take our results to provide empirical evidence that some contextual factors shape well-being in the last years of life and discuss possible routes how local care services might alleviate terminal decline.

In der Oktoberausgabe 2015 veröffentlichte der Wirtschaftsdienst einen Aufsatz zu „Einkommensverteilung und gesamtwirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Deutschland: Spitzeneinkommen–ein Missing-Link“. Die Autoren des vorliegenden Beitrags setzen sich kritisch damit auseinander, im Anschluss erläutern Moritz Drechsel-Grau, Andreas Peichl und Kai Daniel Schmid ihren Standpunkt in einer Erwiderung.