German Internet Panel, Wave 4 (March 2013)

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 in the instruments were used as well as a cross-questionnaire experiment on intermediate feedback of the interviewee.

The questionnaire contains numerous randomizations (e.g. order of decision blocks, order of the 4 decision situations within the blocks, order of the columns in each decision, order of option A and B).

In the cross-questionnaire experiment, the introductory texts are either presented on a separate intermediate page or together with the first question of the new questionnaire block. The experimental group was stored in its own variable.

1. Preferences and interests with regard to working life: The question was asked in relation to the current and the last working activity: Working hours per week; overtime hours; number of overtime hours per week; paid overtime hours; preferred weekly working hours; monthly earnings (net); year of last salary payment; preferences for selected options regarding working hours per week, monthly earnings (net) and income from other sources; living with a partner; partner´s occupation; number of children (natural, adopted or foster and stepchildren) and age of children; common household with children.

2. Leisure time: number of holiday trips of at least 1 week duration and weekend trips of at least 2 overnight stays abroad in 2012; amount of household expenses in the last month; amount of personal expenses for clothing and shoes.

3. Assessment of the probability of the occurrence of selected events in the next five years (in percent): pension reduction, increase in retirement age, increase or decrease in income tax rates, introduction of a nationwide minimum wage in Germany; assessment of the probability of the occurrence of selected events in the next 12 months (in percent): loss of job, finding a new job, rising cost of living; lowest or highest possible monthly wage for a new job (in euros), assessment of the probability in percent that the monthly wage for a new job is at least sum x.

4. Abortion, genetic test: attitude towards abortion in the event of damage to the child, completion of family planning, serious health risk to the woman due to pregnancy, low family income, pregnancy as a result of rape, lack of intention to marry, and irrespective of a reason; attitude towards carrying out genetic tests to clarify genetic defects in the unborn child.

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

Additionally coded was: interview date; questionnaire evaluation; overall assessment of the survey; unique ID, household ID and person ID within the household; federal state from which the respondent took part in the survey; participation in the survey outside Germany; location from which the survey was conducted (e.g. family, public location or on the road); permission to automatically collect geodata; group membership in experiments.