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20040628_soep_prize

Prizes Awarded for Best Presentations at the International Panel Data Conference SOEP2004

Labour Market, Economic Inequality and Methodological Research

Scholars from Europe, the USA, and Australia attended the Sixth International German Socio-Economic Panel User Conference (SOEP2004) from June 24-26, 2004, in Berlin, where they presented their SOEP-based research findings. The themes of this year’s conference were labour market and economic inequality issues, and research on method effects. More than 50 conference presentations provided a discussion forum for over 130 participants from 17 countries on diverse topics ranging from effects of body height on salaries to unpaid overtime in Eastern and Western Germany up to the question how far income, wealth and consumption influence the subjective welfare. At the end of the conference, the program committee voted on the three best presentations.


 



The Jury

The program committee was chaired by Prof. Dr. Felix Büchel (Max Planck Institute for Human Development), and its members were Prof. Conchita D’Ambrosio (SOEP and the University of Milan, Italy), Dr. Joachim R. Frick (SOEP), Prof. Patricia McManus (Indiana University, USA) and Prof. Stephen P. Jenkins (ISER, University of Essex, Great Britain).


Society of Friends of the DIW Berlin donated Prize

“These prizes are sponsored by the Society of Friends of the DIW Berlin, which we are very grateful for, and we are also very happy to have with us today Susanne M. Schmidt, the Managing Director of DIW Berlin and the Society of Friends who will actually present the cheques to the prize winners", said SOEP Deputy Head of Department Dr. Joachim Frick in his speech.


 


Dr. Susanne Maria Schmidt presented the prizes to the winners at the conclusion of the conference.


 

The following papers received a prize (in alphabetical order):


Paul Frijters John P. Haisken-DeNew Michael Shields

Paul Frijters, Ph.D., Economics Program, RSSS, Australian National University, Australien, Dr. John P. Haisken-DeNew, RWI Essen, Michael Shields, Ph.D., Department of Economics, University of Melbourne, Australien

How Well Do Individuals Predict Their Future Life Satisfaction? Evidence from Panel Data Following a Nationwide Exogenous Shock ( PDF-Document, 113 KB)

Comment of the program committee:
"Two growing literatures within economics are first the study of subjective measures of 'life satisfaction' (or 'happiness'), and second the use of exogenous changes or natural experiments to unravel causality. This excellent paper draws on both these literatures to provide a novel analysis of East Germans life satisfaction expectations, and their adjustment over time, where the natural experiment is German re-unification. One headline finding is that East Germans overestimated gains from re-unification. The paper is clear and well-written, and was also presented very well by John Haisken-DeNew."

 


Ingo Geishecker Holger Görg

Ingo Geishecker, DIW Berlin, and Holger Görg, Ph. D., University of Nottingham and Research Director of the Department of International Economics at DIW Berlin

International Outsourcing and Wages: Winners and Losers
( PDF-Document, 272 KB)

Comment of the program committee:
"This paper examines the relationship between outsourcing of materials by firms and the wages of German workers – a topical subject. A novel part of the analysis is the matching in to the SOEP of measures of outsourcing derived from input-output tables. One headline finding is that outsourcing reduced the wages of the lowest-skill workers and increased the wages of the highest-skill workers. This is a thorough analysis, well-executed with clear findings presented by Ingo Geishecker."


Thomas Siedler

Thomas Siedler, ISER, University of Essex and DIW Berlin

Is the receipt of social assistance transmitted from parents to children? Evidence from German panel data ( PDF-Document, 196 KB)

Comment of the program committee:
"The reasons why some people end up receiving social assistance and other do not has been a topic of great policy interest. This very good paper considers this topic, focussing in particular on the role played by receipt of social assistance during one’s childhood, and whether effects differ for men and women, and between the former East and West Germanies. The paper is distinguished by its combination of different methods to check the robustness of results (OLS, instrumental variables to check potential endogeneities, and Manski bounds analysis), together with variations on key definition. The paper is well-written and was excellently presented."


Papers and Posters

The papers and posters presented at the SOEP conference can be downloaded from the SOEP homepage.


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