The Gothenburg Population Panel 1915-1943: GOPP Version 6.0

Abstract

This paper presents the Gothenburg Population Panel (GOPP), a random sample of individuals who were living in Gothenburg at some point in time during the period 1915-1943. The individuals in the GOPP were searched for every fourth year in the registers of local tax authorities. The hit rate was high; 95 percent of the individuals and 87 percent of the possible observations in the initial master sample were found. The database contains 12,500 observations of 3,767 unique individuals 16 years old or more, who are broadly representative of Gothenburg’s adult population in the period of investigation. The sample is augmented with spouses and information on children (birth year and incomes). The paper documents how the database was constructed, describes its historical context, compares it with official statistics, presents some basic sample characteristics and discusses the issue of panel attrition.