The request for record linkage in the IAB-SOEP migration sample

Abstract

"The IAB-SOEP Migration Sample is the first empirical data source that provides linked survey and social security data on migrants in Germany, thus allowing for very detailed analyses of the integration processes in the German labor market. Such a linkage of data sources requires the signed consent of respondents, which we obtain from half of the respondents confronted with the request for the first time. The cumulative consent rate, including a second linkage request for some respondents who had refused the first request, amounts to about 58 percent. About half of the variation in the decision to consent to the record linkage or not is attributable to the household level. Only smaller fractions of one quarter of the variation each can be located at the individual level or the interviewer / neighborhood level. This indicates next to a certain influences of interviewers a considerable importance of the household for individual consent decisions. We tested for a wide range of effects from characteristics of respondents, households, neighborhoods and communities on the individual willingness to consent to record linkage. By and large, we found few systematic differences between consenters and non-consenters that may induce selectivity bias in applied analyses." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Eisnecker, P., Erhardt, K., Kroh, M. & Trübswetter, P. (2017): The request for record linkage in the IAB-SOEP migration sample. (SOEP Survey Papers. Series C 291), Berlin, 36 p.