SOEPpapers

Lost in Transition: Life Satisfaction on the Road to Capitalism

In the transition from socialism to capitalism in Eastern Europe life satisfaction has followed the V-shaped pattern of GDP but failed to recover commensurately. In general, increased satisfaction with material living levels has occurred at the expense of decreased satisfaction with work, health, and family life. Disparities in life satisfaction have increased markedly with those hardest hit being ...

In Vino Pecunia? The Association between Beverage-Specific Drinking Behavior and Wages

The positive association between moderate alcohol consumption and wages is well documented in the economic literature. Positive health effects as well as networking mechanisms serve as explanations for the "alcohol-income puzzle". Using individual-based microdata from the GSOEP for 2006, we confirm that this relationship exists for Germany as well. More importantly, we shed light on the alcohol-income ...

Bringing Home the Money: Xenophobia and Remittances: The Case of Germany

The determinants of migrants' remittances are the subject of this study based on German SOEP data (2001-2006). In contrast to previous studies we analyze the motives for remittances not only for foreigners but also for the broader group of individuals with a personal migration background. Major findings are: First, concerns about xenophobia lead to higher remittances. Second, income and gender has ...

Chances of Employment in a Population of Women and Men after Surgery of Congenital Heart Disease: Gender-Specific Comparisons between Patients and the General Population

It was examined whether women and men (17-45 years) with operated congenital heart disease (CHD) differ with respect to chances of employment. Patients were compared with the general population. Patients (N=314) were classified by type of surgery (curative, reparative, palliative) as indicator of initial severity of disease. The second classification was performed according to a system proposed by ...

Mortgage Market Maturity and Homeownership Inequality among Young Households: A Five-Country Perspective

This paper uses the newly constructed Luxembourg Wealth Study data to document cross-country variation in homeownership rates and the homeownership-income inequality among young households in Finland, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, and relate it to cross-country differences in mortgage market maturity. We find that aside from Italy, homeownership rates and inequality in the four countries correspond ...

Daten- und Datenbankstruktur der Längsschnittstudie Sozio-oekonomisches Panel (SOEP)

Risk Aversion and Trade Union Membership

In an open-shop model of trade union membership with heterogeneity in risk attitudes, a worker's relative risk aversion can affect the decision to join a trade union. Furthermore, a shift in risk attitudes can alter collective bargaining outcomes. Using German panel data (GSOEP) and three novel direct measures of individual risk aversion, we find evidence of a significantly positive relationship between ...

Vom Kinderzuschlag zum Kindergeldzuschlag: ein Reformvorschlag zur Bekämpfung von Kinderarmut

Mit dem im Zuge der Hartz IV-Reform 2005 eingeführten Kinderzuschlag sollte vermieden werden, dass Familien von ALG II und Sozialgeld abhängig werden, deren Einkommen zwar zur Deckung des elterlichen minimalen Lebensstandards, nicht aber für das Existenzminimum des Kindes bzw. der Kinder reicht. Die Auswirkungen der neuen Transferart auf die Einkommenssituation von Familien sind allerdings sehr gering ...

Problems of the German Contribution to EU-SILC: A Research Perspective, Comparing EU-SILC, Microcensus and SOEP

EU-SILC will become one of the most important statistical data sources for the Federal Government's future Poverty and Wealth Reports, for comparing Germany's position with those of the other EU member states in the "open method of coordination", and for the international scientific community and international organisations. Hence this sample needs intensive quality control to ensure data quality. ...

Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages

Using cross-country data, we investigate the determinants of reservation wages and their course over the jobless spell. Higher unemployment benefits lead to higher reservation wages. Further, again consistent with the basic search model, repeated observations on the same individual provide scant evidence of declining reservation wages.

Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis

We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals, after life and labour market events, tend to return to some baseline level of well-being? Although the strongest life satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. We cannot reject the hypothesis of complete adaptation to marriage, divorce, widowhood, birth of ...

Wie wirken Änderungen von Pendlerpauschale und Werbungskostenpauschale? Ein Mikrosimulationsmodell

Die vorliegende Arbeit dokumentiert ein neues Mikrosimulationsmodell für Werbungskosten, das im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums der Finanzen entwickelt wurde und das einige Schwierigkeiten bisheriger Werbungskostenmodelle durch Einsatz moderner statistischer Verfahren überwindet. Das neue Modell erweist sich als flexibles, leicht zu handhabendes Instrument zur Quantifizierung der kurzfristigen Aufkommens- ...

Does Marriage Pay More than Cohabitation? Selection and Specialization Effects on Male Wages in Germany

Empirical research has unambiguously shown that married men receive higher wages than unmarried, whereas a wage premium for cohabiters is not as evident yet. Our paper exploits the observed difference between the marital and the cohabiting wage premium in Germany and thus provides new insights into their respective sources, typically explained by specialization (husbands being more productive because ...

Do Labour Market Institutions Matter? Micro-Level Wage Effects of International Outsourcing in Three European Countries

This paper studies the impact of outsourcing on individual wages in three European countries with markedly different labour market institutions: Germany, the UK and Denmark. To do so we use individual level data sets for the three countries and construct comparable measures of outsourcing at the industry level, distinguishing outsourcing by broad region. Estimating the same specification on different ...

Verbunden über Generationen: Struktur und Ausmaß der intergenerationalen Einkommensmobilität in Deutschland

Das vorliegende Discussion Paper untersucht die Struktur und das Ausmaß der intergenerationalen Einkommensmobilität in Deutschland. Anhand der Daten des deutschen sozioökonomischen Panels ist es möglich, sowohl Vater-Sohn als auch Vater-Tochter Paare zu untersuchen. In einem ersten Schritt geschieht dies anhand einer Einkommensgleichung, die mittels OLS geschätzt wird. Für die Vater-Sohn Paare ergibt ...

What Determines the Duration of Stay of Immigrants in Germany? Evidence from a Longitudinal Duration Analysis

We analyze the return-migration of German immigrants using the latest data of the German Socio- Economic Panel from 1984 to 2006. We conduct a Cox proportional hazard model with years of residence in Germany as waiting time. The analysis reveals that return migration is heavily influenced by country of origin. Individuals from countries with free labor movement agreements with Germany show a ...

Living Apart Together: eine eigenständige Lebensform?

Living apart together (LAT) bezeichnet eine Form der Partnerschaft, bei der die beiden Partner in getrennten Haushalten wohnen, aber fest zusammenleben. Sie bleibt in den meisten sozialwissenschaftlichen Studien (z.B. Mikrozensus) unentdeckt, weil nur Partnerschaften innerhalb eines Haushalts untersucht werden. Das Sozio-oekonomische Panel (SOEP) bietet die einzigartige Möglichkeit, seit 1992 in ...

Naturalization Proclivities, Ethnicity and Integration

This paper studies the determinants of naturalization among Turkish and ex-Yugoslav immigrants in Germany differentiating between actual and planned citizenship. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we measure the impact that integration and ethnicity indicators exert on the probability to naturalize beyond the standard individual and human capital characteristics. A robust finding is that German ...

Does Job Satisfaction Improve the Health of Workers? New Evidence Using Panel Data and Objective Measures of Health

This paper evaluates the relationship between job satisfaction and measures of health of workers using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Methodologically, it addresses two important design problems encountered frequently in the literature: (a) cross-sectional causality problems and (b) absence of objective measures of physical health that complement self-reported measures of health status. Not ...

The German Socio-Economic Panel: How It All Began