German Internet Panel, Wave 14 (November 2014)

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is an infrastructure project. The GIP serves to collect data about individual attitudes and preferences which are relevant for political and economic decision-making processes.

Experimental variations were used in the instruments. The questionnaire contains numerous randomisations as well as a cross-questionnaire experiment.

Topics: Party preference (Sunday question); assessment of the importance of selected policy fields for the federal government (labour market, foreign policy, education and research, citizen participation, energy supply, food and agriculture, European unification, family, health care system, gender equality, internal security, personal rights, pension system, national debt, tax system, environment and climate protection, consumer protection, transport, defence, currency, economy, immigration and integration); currently most important policy areas for the respondent; satisfaction with the performance of the federal government (scalometer); satisfaction with the performance of the parties CDU/CSU, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke (scalometer); probability of an external event: Effects of the Ukraine crisis on the availability and price of Russian gas in Germany; Federal government should draw consequences from the Ukraine crisis and find alternatives to the purchase of Russian gas; assessment of political decisions of the Federal government on the introduction of a rent brake and a car toll, on the expansion of the digital infrastructure as well as on the re-regulation of prostitution; respective responsibility for the fact that corresponding laws have not yet been passed; expected change in unemployment due to the introduction of the minimum wage respectively in Eastern Germany, Western Germany and in Germany as a whole; opinion on the introduction of a statutory minimum wage; assessment of an alternative proposal to the minimum wage (state pays the difference between the real hourly wage and a gross wage of 8.50 euros); opinion on lowering the minimum wage in regions with high unemployment instead of the same minimum wage throughout Germany; self-assessment of patience and willingness to take risks (scalometer); preferred date for the debt brake (from 2015, from 2020, from 2025, after 2030 or not at all); assessment of the debt brake; assessment of the probability that one´s own federal state will manage without new debt from 2020; one´s own federal state should comply with the debt brake if not all 16 federal states manage without new debt from 2020; net household income resp. personal income; own willingness to pay an additional tax amount so that the own federal state can get along without new debts from 2020 onwards and the amount of this contribution (answer scale depending on household income and personal income); debts of cities and municipalities: Willingness to pay additional fees so that the municipality of residence can manage without new debts and the amount of this contribution (classified); willingness to agree to the merger of one´s own federal state with a neighbouring federal state; opinion on self-determination of the tax level by the federal states; opinion on the financing of infrastructure costs in poor regions via a common EU budget; opinion on EU loans within the framework of the euro bailout fund for heavily indebted member states; opinion on the fiscal equalisation system between the federal states; whether one´s own federal state belongs to the donor states or the recipient states; opinion on a law on the formation of reserves by the federal states for the pensions of state civil servants; demand for state measures to reduce income disparities; acceptance of tax evasion; inflation in Germany: Assessment of the price development for food and clothing in general and measured against the expectations of the European Central Bank (ECB) (inflation expectations); expected annual inflation rate in five and in ten years (medium-term and long-term inflation); assessment of the European Central Bank with regard to price stability in the Eurozone; preferred combination of the amount of monthly expenditure and the amount of a loan repayment; reception frequency of news in general and of news on the topic of economy.

Demography: sex; citizenship; year of birth (categorised); highest school-leaving qualification; highest professional qualification; marital status; household size; employment status; private internet use; federal state.

Additionally coded were: Interview date; year of recruitment; questionnaire evaluation; overall interview assessment; unique ID identifier, household identifier and person identifier within household.