Dealing with Space and Place in Standard Survey Data

Heterogeneity of local conditions and spatial dependencies are typical aspects of sociological phenomena. However, large-scale empirical data is often rather limited with regard to the spatial references that are (publicly) available to researchers. We describe several aspects of the problem and assess available options and consequences associated with limited information. Our empirical examples are popular research topics such as returns to education and gender- based and migration-related wage gaps. We base our analyses upon widely used survey data from Germany, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP), which contains geographical information on various levels of aggregation. Our particular interest is focused on problems of space and place in standard large-scale socio-economic surveys and what researchers need to consider when making decisions about their analytical strategy