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Keeping up with the Joneses: Income Comparisons and Labour Supply

We investigate whether working time is related to the intensity of income comparisons and relative income. Our simple theoretical model demonstrates that the effects of relative income concerns depend on whether an individual can choose contractual working hours and/or overtime. In the empirical analysis we rely on novel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which contains direct information ...

Direct evidence for income comparisons and subjective well-being across reference groups

This note provides evidence for the relationship between income comparisons and subjective wellbeing (SWB), using novel German data on self-reported comparison intensity and perceived relative income for seven reference groups. We find negative correlations between comparison intensity and SWB for colleagues, people in the same occupation and friends, but not for other reference groups, such as neighbours. ...

Trade union membership and sickness absence: Evidence from a sick pay reform

In 1996, statutory sick pay was reduced for private sector workers in Germany. Using the empirical observation that trade union members are dismissed less often than non-members, we construct a theoretical model to predict how absence behaviour will respond to the sick pay reform. We show that union members may have stronger incentives (1) to be absent and (2) to react to the cut in sick pay. In the ...

Automobile access, peer effects and happiness

While happiness research in transportation is an emerging topic, this is the first study that uses the German SOEP 2003 data to study the role of peer effects in automobile access on self reported subjective well-being following the approach by Ferrer-i-Carbonell (2005). Defining peers based on age, education and location, we find that the peer’s average automobile availability has a statistically ...

Sinkende Bildungsrenditen durch Bildungsreform? Evidenz aus Mikrozensus und SOEP

Die Bildungsreformen der sechziger Jahre sollten das Bildungsniveau der Westdeutschen anheben. Die Analyse der Daten des Mikrozensus weist darauf hin, dass die durch die Bildungsreformen intendierte Bildungsexpansion schon vor 1960 begonnen hat. Mit dem Conditional Mean Independence Ansatz werden Schätzungen von Bildungsrenditen mit dem SOEP nach Geschlecht und Geburtskohorten für die Jahre 1985, 1991, ...

Deutschland: ein Land der Mieter? Die Rolle von Erwartungen über zukünftige Immobilienpreisentwicklungen

Mehr als die Hälfte aller Haushalte in Deutschland wohnen zur Miete – ein im internationalen Vergleich sehr hoher Wert. Bisherige Studien haben vor allen Dingen den regulatorischen Rahmen des Immobilienmarkts hervorgehoben, der Mietwohnungen in Deutschland systematisch begünstigt. Allerdings gibt es keine Studien, die diese Erklärungen empirisch eindeutig untermauern können: einige Arbeiten betonen ...

The Determinants of Smoking Initiation - Empirical Evidence for Germany

This paper aims at analyzing the determinants of the decision to start smoking using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The data used is a combination of retrospective information on the age individuals started smoking and, by tracing back these individuals within the panel structure up to the point they started smoking, information on characteristics at the age of smoking initiation. ...

Smoking initiation in Germany: the role of intergenerational transmission

This paper analyzes the decision to start smoking using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Our focus is on the role that parental smoking behavior plays for children's smoking initiation. The data used are a combination of retrospective information on the age individuals started smoking and, by tracing back these individuals within the panel structure up to that point, information ...

Ist erben unsozial? Erbschaftsregeln zwischen "unsichtbarer" und "toter Hand"

Evaluating how child allowances and daycare subsidies affect fertility

We compare the cost effectiveness of two pronatalist policies: (a) child allowances; and (b) daycare subsidies. We pay special attention to estimating how intended fertility (fertility before children are born) responds to these policies. We use two evaluation tools: (i) a dynamic model on fertility, labor supply, outsourced childcare time, parental time, asset accumulation and consumption; and (ii) ...