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SOEPpapers 1178 / 2022
We analyse a measure of loneliness from a representative sample of German individuals interviewed in both 2017 and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Both men and women felt lonelier during the COVID-19 pandemic than they did in 2017. The pandemic more than doubled the gender loneliness gap: women were lonelier than men in 2017, and the 2017-2020 rise in loneliness was far larger for ...
2022| Anthony Lepinteur, Andrew E. Clark, Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Alan Piper, Carsten Schröder, Conchita D'Ambrosio
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SOEPpapers 1177 / 2022
We propose that false beliefs about the own current economic status are an important factor for explaining populist attitudes. Along with the subjects' receptiveness to right-wing populism, we elicit their perceived relative income positions in a representative survey of German households. We find that people with pessimistic beliefs about their income position are more attuned to populist statements. ...
2022| Thilo N. H. Albers, Felix Kersting, Fabian Kosse
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SOEPpapers 1176 / 2022
This paper exploits the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within East Germany at the end of WWII to study political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered, 40% of what would become the authoritarian German Democratic Republic was initially under Allied control but was ceded to Soviet control less than two months later. Brief Allied exposure increased ...
2022| Luis R. Martinez, Jonas Jessen, Guo Xu
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SOEPpapers 1175 / 2022
Do politically administered mass layoffs undermine trust and political interest? During the German reunification, formerly state-owned socialist firms in East Germany were privatized by the Treuhand, which came at the cost of massive job losses and public protest. I demonstrate that these activities had a detrimental effect on attitudes and political behavior of the affected individuals. Using survey ...
2022| Kim Leonie Kellermann
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SOEPpapers 1174 / 2022
How does previous exposure to massive immigrant inflows affect concerns about current immigration and the integration of refugees? To answer this question, we investigate attitudes toward newcomers among natives and previous immigrants. In areas that in the 1990s received higher inflows of immigrants of German origin—so-called ethnic Germans—native Germans are more likely to believe that refugees are ...
2022| Rania Gihleb, Osea Giuntella, Luca Stella
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SOEPpapers 1173 / 2022
German history over the past 125 years has been turbulent. Marked by two world wars, revolutions and major regime changes, as well as a hyperinflation and three currency reforms, expropriations and territorial divisions, it provides unique insights into the role of country-specific shocks in shaping long-run wealth dynamics. This paper presents the first comprehensive study of wealth and its distribution ...
2022| Thilo N. H. Albers, Charlotte Bartels, Moritz Schularick
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SOEPpapers 1172 / 2022
Background: Previous research suggests that romantic relationships play a crucial role for perceived control. However, we know surprisingly little about changes in perceived control before and after the end of romantic relationships. Methods: Based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), a nationally representative household panel study from Germany, we examined changes of perceived control ...
2022| Eva Asselmann, Jule Specht
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SOEPpapers 1171 / 2022
Although everyone would agree that bereavement is extremely stressful, surprisingly little is known about changes in different facets of affective well-being in the years surrounding the death of a loved one. On the basis of the Socio-Economic Panel Study, we examined changes in cognitive well-being (life satisfaction) and different facets of affective well-being (happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger) ...
2022| Eva Asselmann, Jule Specht
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SOEPpapers 1170 / 2022
Using the 2015 introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany as a quasi-experiment, I investigate the effects of wage increases on personality. The degree to which each worker’s wage is intended to be affected by the reform is used as an instrument for the relative increase in the worker’s hourly wage in a two-stage least squares estimation based on nationally representative panel data (N = 1,955 ...
2022| Adam Ayaita
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SOEPpapers 1169 / 2022
Wohnkosten machen einen großen Teil der Ausgaben der Haushalte und Familien aus, und variieren zwischen Haushalten unterschiedlicher Größe und Struktur stark. Trotzdem werden sie in der Familienberichterstattung bisher wenig thematisiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit will diese Lücke schließen, indem sie die Wohnkostensituation und Wohlfahrtsvorteile, die sich durch kostenreduziertes Wohnen ergeben, in Kategorien ...
2022| Susanne Elsas, Annika Rinklake
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SOEPpapers 1168 / 2022
This paper provides one of the first tests of adaptation to the complete set of residential transitions. We use long-run SOEP panel data and consider the impact of all housing transitions, whether or not they involve a change in housing tenure or geographical movement, on both life satisfaction and housing satisfaction. Controlling for individual characteristics, some residential transitions affect ...
2022| Andrew E. Clark, Luis Diaz-Serrano
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SOEPpapers 1167 / 2022
Objective: Leaders differ in their personalities from non- leaders. However, when do these differences emerge? Are leaders “born to be leaders” or does their personality change in preparation for a leadership role and due to increasing leadership experience? Method: Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we examined personality differences between leaders (N = 2683 leaders, women: n ...
2022| Eva Asselmann, Elke Holst, Jule Specht
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SOEPpapers 1166 / 2022
Exploiting the random allocation of asylum seekers to different locations in Germany, we study the impact of right-wing voting on refugees’ integration. We find that in municipalities with more voting for the right-wing AfD, refugees have worse economic and social integration. These impacts are largest for groups targeted by AfD campaigns and refugees are also more likely to suffer from harassment and ...
2022| Pia Schilling, Steven Stillman
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SOEPpapers 1165 / 2022
After the end of World War II in 1945, millions of refugees arrived in what in 1949 became the Federal Republic of Germany. We examine their effect on today’s productivity, wages, income, rents, education, and population density at the municipality level. Our identification strategy is based on a spatial discontinuity in refugee settlement at the border between the French and US occupation zones in ...
2022| Antonio Ciccone, Jan Nimczik
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SOEPpapers 1164 / 2022
We investigate the relationship between homeownership and life as well as housing satisfaction. Using panel data from Germany, we find that compared to renting, owning a home positively impacts housing satisfaction. Contrarily, we find no significant effects on life satisfaction in the long-term. Analysing short-term effects in an event-study design, we show that both life and housing satisfaction ...
2022| Sebastian Will, Timon Renz
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SOEPpapers 1163 / 2022
This study contributes to the subjective well-being and retirement literature by quantifying life satisfaction before (4) and after retirement (9+) periods asking: Are retirees more satisfied? Fixed-effects and causal instrumental variables (IV) estimates with individual longitudinal data of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 33 waves) analyze anticipation and adaptation retirement effects of statutory ...
2022| Joachim Merz
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SOEPpapers 1162 / 2022
This study examines short-, medium-, and long-run price expectations in hous ing markets. We derive and test six hypothesis about the incidence, formation, and relevance of price expectations. To do so, we use data from a tailored household sur vey, past sale offerings, satellites, and from an information RCT. As novel findings, we show that price expectations exhibit mean reversion in the long-run. ...
2022| Niklas Gohl, Peter Haan, Claus Michelsen, Felix Weinhardt
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SOEPpapers 1161 / 2022
We estimate the effect of parental separation on the risk and trust attitudes of German adolescents using a large household survey dataset, which allows us to match respondents to their siblings and parents. Our results indicate that adolescents from separated families are less trusting but have the same risk tolerance as adolescents from non-separated families, even after conditioning on the attitudes ...
2022| Sarah C. Dahmann, Nathan Kettlewell, Jack Lam
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SOEPpapers 1160 / 2022
This study deals with the impact of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis on the ethnic identity of resident migrants in Germany. To derive plausibly causal estimates, I exploit the quasi experimental setting in Germany, by which refugees are allocated to different counties by state authorities without being able to choose their locations themselves. This study finds that higher shares of refugees in a ...
2022| Christopher Prömel
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SOEPpapers 1159 / 2022
Background: The transition to parenthood is characterized by far-reaching changes in life. However, little prospective-longitudinal evidence from general population samples exists on changes of general physical and mental health in the years around the birth of a child among mothers and fathers. Methods: Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), this study examined continuous and ...
2022| Eva Asselmann, Susan Garthus-Niegel, Susanne Knappe, Julia Martini