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Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) – Version 0622 v1

DOI: 10.5164/IAB.PASS-SUF0622.de.en.v1

Summary

The Panel Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) is a central dataset for research on the labour market, poverty and means-tested income support in Germany (German Social Code Book II). Established by the IAB in 2007, annual surveys are conducted in households in receipt of Unemployment Benefit II and households registered as residents of Germany. Initially, a personal interview is carried out with the heads of all selected households. Subsequently, all members of the household aged 15 or over are interviewed.

The Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security allows to analyse the dynamic of the receipt of Unemployment Benefit II as well as the effects of receipt of social benefits on the economic and social situation of the affected households and individuals. Furthermore, PASS also offers information beyond its central issues of employment and unemployment, comprising a variety of socio-demographic characteristics and subjective indicators such as contentment, fears and problems or employment orientation.

Dataset Descriptions, Questionnaires and Frequencies

Detailed descriptions for each wave are included in the respective FDZ Datenreports. Information on the survey design is available in the FDZ Methodenreports.

For the scientific-use file of PASS provided via the FDZ, modified identifiers (hnr, uhnr, pnr, and bgnr) are created for each new version starting with wave 15. These are compatible within a version, but not between different versions.

German

English

Web survey PASS Wave 16

Following wave 16 in 2022, a web survey was conducted for the first time as part of the "Panel Labour Market and Social Security" (PASS). The PASS web survey enables data collection on current topics between regular PASS waves. In the first implementation, this was the moratorium on sanctions. In addition, the first PASS web survey contains questions in particular that allow research into measurement differences between the new web mode and the modes of the main survey (CATI/CAPI). The first wave of the web survey is available as part of the PASS-SUF of wave 16.

Detailed information about the PASS web survey wave 16 can be found in the publications:

IAB SMART Mobility Module

The IAB-SMART Mobility data module provides smartphone-generated mobility indicators as additional variables of the “Panel Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS). The participants in IAB-SMART are PASS respondents from wave 11 (2017) with an Android smartphone who were invited to install the IAB-SMART app.

Detailed information on the data module and a working tool for linking IAB-SMART Mobility with the PASS data can be found in the publication below:

Zimmermann, Florian, Filser, Andreas, Haas, Georg-Christoph; Bähr, Sebastian (2023). The IAB-SMART-Mobility Module: An Innovative Research Dataset with Mobility Indicators Based on Raw Geodata. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2023-0051

Quality Control in PASS

Interviewer falsification

More detailed information on the method of identifying interviewer falsification in the PASS Survey are available in the FDZ Methodenreport 04/2021 (pdf, only in German).

Data Access

Scientific Use Files (SUF). Further information on Requesting a SUF.

Other working tools

Further working tools as a list of BHP variables and papers on working with the FDZ data can be found at key working tools of the FDZ.

Citation

Researchers working with the PASS are obligated to acknowledge the data base and its documentation within their publications, including the DOI, by using the following reference:

Data:

Mark Trappmann, Sebastian Bähr, Jonas Beste, Nadja Bömmel, Mustafa Coban, Matthias Collischon, Sandra Dummert, Corinna Frodermann, Stefanie Gundert, Benjamin Küfner, Jan Mackeben, Sonja Malich, Bettina Müller, Stefan Schwarz, Jens Stegmaier, Nils Teichler, Claudia Wenzig, Anja Wunder, Marco Berg, Ralph Cramer, Christian Dickmann, Reiner Gilberg, Birgit Jesske, Martin Kleudgen (2023): "Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) – Version 0622 v1". Research Data Centre of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). DOI: 10.5164/IAB.PASS-SUF0622.de.en.v1
Data access was provided via a Scientific Use File supplied by the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

Data documentation:

  • Marco Berg et al. (2023): Codebuch und Dokumentation des Panel "Arbeitsmarkt und soziale Sicherung" (PASS) – Datenreport Welle 16. FDZ Datenreport, 12/2023 (de), Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5164/IAB.FDZD.2312.de.v1
  • Marco Berg et al. (2024): Codebook and Documentation of the Panel Study „Labour Market and Social Security“ (PASS) Datenreport Wave 16. FDZ Datenreport, 12/2023 (en), Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5164/IAB.FDZD.2312.en.v1

According to the FDZ Data Usage Agreement, any type of publication resulting from work with FDZ data must be reported to the FDZ by email at the latest one month after publication. The notification must include an electronic version of the printed version or, after publication, a reprint or a copy of the publication free of charge.

Data Versions

>> Further information on other versions of the PASS dataset.