Publikationen mit SOEP-Daten: SOEPlit

Optimal minimum wages

We develop a quantitative spatial model with heterogeneous firms and a monopsonistic labour market to derive minimum wages that maximize employment or welfare. Quantifying the model for German micro regions, we find that the German minimum wage, set at 48% of the national mean wage, has increased aggregate worker welfare by about 2.1% at the cost or reducing employment by about 0.3%. The welfare-maximizing ...

Social Norms and Preventive Behaviors in Japan and Germany During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: According to a recent paper by Gelfand et al., COVID-19 infection and case mortality rates are closely connected to the strength of social norms: “Tighter” cultures that abide by strict social norms are more successful in combating the pandemic than “looser” cultures that are more permissive. However, countries with similar levels of cultural tightness exhibit big differences in mortality ...

The personality traits of self-made and inherited millionaires

Very wealthy people influence political and societal processes by wielding their economic power through foundations, lobbying groups, media campaigns, as investors and employers. Because personality shapes goals, attitudes, and behaviour, it is important to understand the personality traits that characterize the rich. We used representative survey data to construct two large samples, one from the general ...

Ein Mietkauf-Modell für NRW: Vorschlag für eine praktische Umsetzung

Gender Differences in the Social Consequences of Unemployment: How Job Loss Affects the Risk of Becoming Socially Isolated

Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, the study examines whether the impact of unemployment on the risk of becoming socially isolated is different for women and men and whether it can be traced back to financial straits. An isolating effect of unemployment is found only with regard to men, to long-term unemployment, and to social isolation in terms of scarce contact to friends ...

Spouses’ Employment Situations and Marital Separation in Germany: A Dyadic Perspective

Previous research shows that men’s and women’s employment situations can affect the stability of marital unions, but results differ by country context and different measurements. This study models the effect of spouses’ employment situations on the risk of divorce. It focuses on time aspects and financial aspects, resulting from the employment situation of married spouses in Germany. A broad variety ...

Unequal tensions: the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in light of subjective health and social inequality dimensions in Germany

An online survey was conducted in Germany during the lockdown period to assess its psycho-social consequences. A convenience sample N?=?2009 (comparable representation of former GDR and West Germany, 71% females) took part in the survey. The results show a negative impact of the corona pandemic on subjective well-being, health and life satisfaction. We also found a lower sense of security and an increase ...

Modeling heterogeneous treatment effects in the presence of endogeneity

An inappropriate handling of cross-sectional heterogeneity renders estimates of causal effects inaccurate and uninformative. The present paper discusses how the direct modeling of cross-sectional differences via semiparametric models represents a useful bridge between a statistical approach, where the conditional distribution of the dependent variable returns any value of the outcome given any value ...

Do feelings of belonging moderate the health threats of perceived discrimination? Evidence from first-generation immigrants living in Germany

The paper analyses the effects of perceived discrimination on the self-rated health of immigrants living in Germany. Previous research indicates that immigrants? health is negatively affected by the psychosocial strain caused by perceived discrimination. I analyse whether feelings of belonging to both the origin and the host country play a moderating role in this association: While feelings of belonging ...

Positive and negative affect are associated with salivary cortisol in the everyday life of older adults: A quantitative synthesis of four aging studies

Research on time-fluctuating links between positive affect and cortisol is inconsistent and mostly based on young to middle-aged samples. The current project investigated how moment-to-moment changes in positive and negative affect are associated with moment-to-moment changes in cortisol levels in older adults’ daily lives and whether those associations are moderated by differences in health status ...