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German Microdata Lab

Preparation and provision of the microcensus as a panel sample

The microcensus is designed as a rotating panel sample in which the households in a sample district are surveyed for four years, with a quarter of the sample districts being replaced each year. Persons and households moving out are replaced by persons and households moving in. Due to the sample size of the microcensus panel, which comprises around 110,000 persons for the survey dates 1996-1999, the transfer as a scientific use file opens up a variety of new possibilities for analysis.

The prerequisites for making the data accessible for research purposes were created by the BMBF and DFG-funded project (duration September 2003 - December 2005). The project partners were the Federal Statistical Office, the State Office for Data Processing and Statistics of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Free University of Berlin (Prof. Dr U. Rendtel; DFG project) and the GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The project developed a reliable procedure for merging the longitudinal data, analysed possible distortions due to spatial mobility for specific content-related questions and developed and validated weighting and extrapolation procedures for their correction. As the anonymisation concepts available for the provision of microcensus data are only related to cross-sectional data, an anonymisation and file concept was necessary for the panel data. 

 In the GESIS sub-project, analyses of sample selectivity were carried out for selected questions in education and labour market research and an anonymisation and file concept for the microcensus panel was developed in cooperation with the statistical offices.

The 1996-1999 microcensus panel has been available as a scientific use file since September 2006. For further information see Datadocumentation for the microcensuspanel. 

Publications:

  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2008): Bildungsverläufe und Stichprobenselektivität. Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels 1996-1999 am Beispiel bildungsstatistischer Fragestellungen. GESIS-Forschungsberichte, Reihe Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenanalyse,  Band 1. ISBN 978-3-86819-003-8. Bonn: GESIS. [zum Download].
  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Auszug aus dem Elternhaus: Ergebnisse Mikrozensuspanel 1996-1999. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/04 (782 kB).
  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Zur Datenqualität der Bildungsangaben im Mikrozensus. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/03 (289 kB).
  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Berufliche Ausbildungsverläufe bis zum Übergang ins Erwerbsleben – Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels 1996-1999. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/02 (0.94 MB).
  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Filekonzept zum Mikrozensuspanel. Methodenverbund "Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe", Arbeitspapier Nr. 12 (225 kB).
  • Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2005): Bildungsverläufe im Mikrozensuspanel 1996-1999: Besuch der gymnasialen Oberstufe bis zum Abitur. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2005/02 (845 kB).
  • Wirth, Heike (2006): Anonymisierung des Mikrozensuspanels im Kontext der Bereitstellung als Scientific-Use-File. Methodenverbund "Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe", Arbeitspapier Nr. 11 (221 kB).