Codebook and documentation of the panel study 'Labour Market and Social Security' (PASS) : Datenreport wave 8

The panel study 'Labour Market and Social Security' (PASS), established by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), creates a new empirical dataset for labour market, welfare state and poverty research and policy counseling in Germany. This study is conducted as part of IAB research on German Social Code Book II (SGB II). The IAB must fulfill a statutory mandate to study the effects of the benefits and services provided under SGB II, which are aimed at labour-market integration and subsistence benefits. However, due to its complex sampling design, this study also enables researchers to examine additional issues. The following five core questions, which are detailed in Achatz, Hirseland and Promberger (2007), influenced the development of this study: 1. What are the options for regaining financial independence from Unemployment Benefit (UB) II (Arbeitslosengeld II)? 2. How does a household's social situation change when it receives benefits? 3. How do individuals who receive benefits cope with their situations? Do recipient attitudes toward the actions required to improve their situations change over time? 4. How does contact between benefit recipients and institutions that provide basic social security take place? What actual institutional procedures are applied in practice? 5. What employment history patterns or household dynamics lead to receiving Unemployment Benefit II? This data report provides an overview of the eighth survey wave, for which 13,460 individuals in 8,998 households were interviewed between February 2014 and September 2014. This sample included 11,993 individuals and 8,031 households that had previously been interviewed for PASS. This data report of wave 8 documents the wave-specific aspects of the study. Chapter 1.2 contains a short description of the instruments and the survey program. Following a short overview of the innovations and characteristics of wave 8 (Chapter 1.3), the data report provides key figures on the wave's sample and response rates (Chapter 2). The data preparation process is described (Chapter 5), and an overview of the variables generated is presented (Chapter 4). Additionally, the weighting procedure is presented (Chapter 6). Separate tables list the frequencies of all of the variables included in the scientific use file that were recorded in wave 8 by their respective datasets (Volumes II through V).