SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Pre- and Post-Migration Determinants of Self-Rated Health Among Ukrainian Refugees In Germany: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Analysis with Recently Arrived Refugees from Other Countries of Origin

6.5 million Ukrainian refugees have been displaced globally since 2022, with one million who registered for temporary protection in Germany under the EU Tempo¬rary Protection Directive. Unlike other refugee groups, they were granted immediate access to social security and health care. However, little is known about the differences in health determinants for individuals arriving under the EU Temporary ...

Revision and Cross-cultural Adaptation of the Human Values Scale for Self-completion Modes

Since its first round, the European Social Survey (ESS) has included a 21-item measure of ten basic human values shared across cultures, known as the Human Values Scale (HVS), developed by Shalom H. Schwartz. Recently, the scale has been revised to a new 20-item HVS with shorter, simpler items (usually only one sentence instead of two sentences per item in the past version) and introducing a single ...

Unequal Returns? Wealth and Debt Gradients in Health Among Immigrants and Natives in Norway

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is positively associated with health, but these benefits are not equally shared across groups. The Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework posits that marginalized groups derive weaker health returns from economic resources than majority populations. Extending this framework to a migration context, this study examines wealth - and debt – health gradients ...

Consolidated Trajectories? Social Class and Earnings Growth over the Life Course

What kind of earnings mobility regime defines our society? Are individuals’ earnings trajectories primarily shaped by their social class position, or do trajectories vary within them? These unresolved questions lie at the heart of debates on social class and labor market rewards. To address them, we leverage employment relations theory and data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We use mixed effects ...

The Politics of Unjust Inequalities: From Injustice Perceptions to Protest and Redistribution

Collecting Longitudinal Data among Newly Arriving Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Germany: Experiences from A Pilot Study at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Tied Movers’ Gender Earnings Gap

Job-related relocations are common. Standard economic models typically treat workers as isolated individuals, while most workers live and move as part of a couple. Using a dynamic event study with synthetic comparison groups and German data, we show that women within couples frequently become “tied movers”: following relocation, male partners experience substantial earnings gains (as both hourly wages ...

Wealth Inequality among Families in a Changing Demographic Landscape: Evidence from Germany, 1988–2017

The role of demographic change for wealth inequality remains underexplored. This study analyzes how shifts in population aging, immigration, partnership status, educational attainment, and female labor force participation influenced wealth inequality in West Germany between 1988 and 2017, focusing on households with children. Our findings reveal that while overall wealth inequality remained stable, ...

Trends in Relative and Absolute Mobility of Homeownership in Europe

Homeownership has declined among younger generations in most European countries. A common assumption is that this trend is increasingly stratified by parental homeownership, due to worsening affordability and the growing importance of parental financial support. In this study, we show that this assumption does not hold for the average European. Using data from EU-SILC 2011 and 2019 across 27 European ...

Parental Influence on Their Children’s Homeownership Remains High, but Declining

Homeownership is far less prevalent in Germany than in most other European countries. This Weekly Report examines the extent to which homeownership in Germany depends on the ownership status of parents and how the association has changed over time. Homeownership rates are significantly lower among younger birth cohorts than among older cohorts. At the same time, intergenerational mobility toward renting ...