Forschung SOEP: Soziale Ungleichheiten und Verteilung

Effects of the legal minimum wage on poverty

The project analyses the effects of the statutory minimum wage on poverty in Germany. We use the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to examine the development of income poverty. Using a microsimulation model, the project studies the effect of minimum wages on social benefits.

Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf die Armut

Im Fokus der Studie steht die Analyse der Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Armut im Zeitraum bis 2019. Dabei wird auf Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) die Entwicklung von Einkommensarmut und Armutsgefährdung untersucht. Im Rahmen der Analyse werden mithilfe eines Mikrosimulationsmodells zudem die Auswirkungen verschiedener Höhen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns...

Steigende Polarisierung der Markteinkommen

The Economic Research Potentials of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study

We provide a concise introduction to a household-panel data infrastructure that provides the international research community with longitudinal data of private households in Germany since 1984: the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We demonstrate the comparative strength of the SOEP data in answering economically-relevant questions by highlighting its diverse and impactful applications throughout ...

The German Minimum Wage and Wage Growth: Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Using Causal Forests

Previous research suggests that minimum wages induce heterogeneous treatment effects on wages across different groups of employees. This research usually defines groups \textit{ex ante}. We analyze to what extent effect heterogeneities can be discerned in a data-driven manner by adapting the generalized random forest implementation of Athey et al (2019) in a difference-in-differences setting. Such ...

The Distribution of Wealth in Germany 1895-2018

This paper presents the first comprehensive study of the long-run evolution of wealth inequality in Germany. We combine tax data, surveys, national accounts and rich lists to study the distribution of wealth in Germany from 1895 to 2018. We show that the concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 1% has fallen by half, from close to 50% in 1895 to less than 25% today. The interwar period as well ...

Family Life during Corona: Version: 26 Juni 2020

First Time Around: Local Conditions and Multi-dimensional Integration of Refugees

We study the causal effect of local labor market conditions and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes (economic, linguistic, navigational, political, psychological, and social). Using a unique dataset on refugees, we leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were exogenously assigned to live in specific counties. ...

Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment

Modernization theorists’ ‘rising tide hypothesis’ predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification ...

Improving the Coverage of the Top-Wealth Population in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

We have developed and implemented a new sampling strategy to better represent very wealthy individuals in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our strategy is based on the empirical regularity that the very wealthy have at least part of their assets invested in businesses, and that businesses document shares of relevant shareholders in their books. Our results show that combined analysis of the ...