Dear Colleagues:

The new SOEPnewsletter No. 91/2011 is available now!

Please see: http://www.diw.de/en/diw_01.c.365578.de

We have good news: The main SOEP sample will be increased to about 3,000 households in 2011. Our fieldwork organization TNS Infratest Sozialforschung of the last 26 years will continue to work with us, they won the Europe-wide tender for a ten-year contract. The SOEP has been given greater autonomy: it is no longer a regular department but a “research infrastructure” in DIW Berlin. We are steadily improving our survey methods, see for the next steps in this process the Comment from Martin Kroh in the new SOEPnewsletter. Furthermore, we provide information about SOEP 1984–2009 data, data news from Cornell, PanelWhiz, the upcomig SOEPcampus@DIW Berlin Workshop ‘Einfuehrung in die Nutzung von SOEP-Daten’ (registration starts Jan 10, 2011), a lot of personnel news, new papers, new users, and much more….

The SOEP group is very grateful for your support and wishes you all a peaceful and happy new year!

Elke Holst
Editor SOEPnewsletter