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SOEPpapers 454 / 2012
In principle, the SOEP is a highly adequate data source for analyzing the socio-economic background of temporary agency workers. In this paper, it's argued that on second glance, the SOEP's temp worker variable shows severe problems with data quality. An easy-to-use adjustment procedure is proposed that alleviates the problem, but is not an encompassing solution. Therefore, it is concluded that in ...
2012| Holger Schäfer
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SOEPpapers 453 / 2012
We show that personality traits mediate the effect of income on Life Satisfaction. The effect is strong in the case of Neuroticism, which measures the sensitivity to threat and punishment, in both the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socioeconomic Panel. Neuroticism increases the usually observed concavity of the relationship: Individuals with higher Neuroticism score enjoy income more ...
2012| Eugenio Proto, Aldo Rustichini
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SOEPpapers 452 / 2012
The role of money in producing sustained subjective well-being seems to be seriously compromised by social comparisons and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a considerable variety of economic and social activities, rendering conclusions regarding ...
2012| Andrew E. Clark
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SOEPpapers 451 / 2012
This paper examines the evolution of top incomes in Germany from 1907-2007 with a special focus on past decades. A more detailed analysis of German top incomes is conducted, beginning with a review of selected income distribution measures which indicate that high incomes have played a significant role for income divergence in recent years. Based on newdata it is shown that top income shares have indeed ...
2012| Christina Anselmann, Hagen M. Krämer
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SOEPpapers 450 / 2012
Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), both income inequality and poverty are considered for Germany in front of and during the economic crisis 2008-2010. This comprises binary logistic regressions where it is tested whether a person is belonging to a certain income region or not. The units of analysis are differentiated by residential status, nationality, sex, age, household size/household ...
2012| Jürgen Faik
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SOEPpapers 449 / 2012
This paper takes a labor supply perspective (neoclassical labor supply, job search) to explain the lower employment rates of older workers and women. The basic rationale is that workers choose non-employed if their reservation wages are larger than the offered wages. Whereas the offered wages depend on workers' productivity and firms' decisions, reservation wages are largely determined by workers' ...
2012| Stephan Humpert, Christian Pfeifer
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SOEPpapers 448 / 2012
The German reunification, which several economists have called a 'natural' experiment, provides the unique possibility to inquire the impact of migration on subjective well-being (SWB). The main goal of the research is to assessing the impact of adaptation, social comparison and relative deprivation on the change in SWB associated with moving from Eastern to Western Germany after the German reunification ...
2012| Silvia Maja Melzer, Ruud J. Muffels
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SOEPpapers 447 / 2012
Nur wenige Studien geben Aufschluss über den Gesundheitszustand der in Deutschland lebenden Migrantenbevölkerung und beschränken sich meist auf rein medizinische Kriterien. Die vorliegende Arbeit vergleicht auf Grundlage von Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) den Gesundheitszustand spezifischer Migrantengruppen mit dem der einheimischen Bevölkerung anhand des SF-12, einem mehrdimensionalen ...
2012| Maike Schulz
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SOEPpapers 446 / 2012
To explore single mothers' labor market participation we analyze specific circumstances and dynamics in their life courses. We focus on the question which individual and institutional factors determine both professional advancement and professional descent. Due to dynamics in women's life course identifying and analyzing restrictions and interruptions of employment requires a longitudinal research ...
2012| Mine Hancioglu, Bastian Hartmann
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SOEPpapers 445 / 2012
Perceived control is an important variable for various demands involved in successful aging. However, perceived control is not set in stone, but rather changes throughout the life course. The aim of this study was to identify cross-sectional age differences and longitudinal mean-level changes as well as rank-order changes in perceived control with respect to sex and education. Furthermore, changes ...
2012| Jule Specht, Boris Egloff, Stefan C. Schmukle
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SOEPpapers 444 / 2012
The paper analyzes the gender pay gap in private-sector management positions based on German panel data and using fixed-effects models. It deals with the effect of occupational sex segregation on wages, and the extent to which wage penalties for managers in predominantly female occupations are moderated by firm size. Drawing on economic and organizational approaches and the devaluation of women's work, ...
2012| Anne Busch, Elke Holst
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SOEPpapers 443 / 2012
A lack of cultural integration is often blamed for hindering immigrant families' economic progression. This paper is a first attempt to explore whether immigrant parents' ethnic identity affects the next generation's human capital accumulation in the host country. Empirical results based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) indicate that maternal majority as well as paternal minority ...
2012| Simone Schüller
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SOEPpapers 442 / 2012
Das Ausmaß beruflicher Mobilität wird häufig als Indikator für die Flexibilität von Arbeitsmärkten gesehen. Aus gesamtwirtschaftlicher Perspektive steht dabei die Anpassungsfähigkeit an den Strukturwandel im Vordergrund. Aus Sicht der einzelnen Arbeitnehmer eröffnen berufliche Veränderungen die Möglichkeit, in attraktivere Berufe zu wechseln. Hier werden die kurz- und langfristigen Effekte eines Berufswechsels ...
2012| Natascha Nisic, Parvati Trübswetter
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SOEPpapers 441 / 2012
People gain utility from occupying a higher ranked position in the income distribution of the reference group. This paper investigates whether these gains depend on an individual's set of non-cognitive skills. Using the 2000-2008 waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel dataset (SOEP), a subjective question on Life Satisfaction, and three different sets of non-cognitive skills indicators, we find significant ...
2012| Santi Budria, Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell
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SOEPpapers 440 / 2012
In most industrialized countries, the work and family patterns of the baby boomers characterized by more heterogeneous working careers and less stable family lives setthem apart from preceding cohorts. Thus, it is of crucial importance to understand how these different work and family lives are linked to the boomers' prospective material well-being as they retire. This paper presents a new and unique ...
2012| Christian Westermeier, Anika Rasner, Markus M. Grabka
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SOEPpapers 439 / 2012
In Deutschland werden die Geburtskohorten der 1956 bis 1965 Geborenen als Babyboomer bezeichnet. Diese Gruppe kennzeichnet sich nicht nur durch eine überdurchschnittliche Kohortenstärke aus, sondern diese waren Profiteure des Ausbaus des Wohlfahrtsstaates und deren Kindheit und Jugend: waren durch einen Zeitraum wirtschaftlicher Prosperität und politischer Stabilität als auch durch eine historische ...
2012| Joachim R. Frick, Markus M. Grabka, Anika Rasner, Marian Schmidt, Morten Schuth, Christian Westermeier
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SOEPpapers 438 / 2012
Previous studies report a wide range of estimates for how female labor supply responds to childcare prices. We shed new light on this question using a reform that raised the prices of public daycare. Parents respond by reducing public daycare and increasing childcare at home. Parents also reduce informal childcare indicating that public daycare and informal childcare are complements. Female labor force ...
2012| Christina Gathmann, Björn Sass
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SOEPpapers 437 / 2012
It is puzzling that people feel quite unhappy when they become unemployed, while at the same time active labor market policies are needed to bring unemployed back to work more quickly. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigate whether there is indeed such a puzzle. First, we find that nearly half of the unemployed do not experience a drop in happiness, which might explain why ...
2012| Anne C. Gielen, Jan C. van Ours
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SOEPpapers 436 / 2012
Minijobs spielen in den Erwerbsverläufen von Frauen in Deutschland eine unterschiedliche Rolle, wie dieser Beitrag - basierend auf einer Analyse von SOEP-Daten zeigt. Zum einen gibt es die Gruppe verheirateter Frauen, die Minijobs überwiegend als Ergänzung zu einem ausreichenden Partnereinkommen ausüben. Zum anderen aber gibt es Gruppen von Frauen, deren Erwerbsbiografien als Folge von Minijobs - kaum ...
2012| Christina Klenner, Tanja Schmidt
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SOEPpapers 435 / 2012
This paper examines regional differences in subjective well-being (SWB) in Germany. Inferential statistics indicate a diminishing but still significant gap between East and West Germany, but also differing levels of SWB within both parts. The observed regional pattern of life satisfaction reflects macroeconomic fundamentals, where labor market conditions play a dominant role. Differing levels of GDP ...
2012| Johannes Vatter