SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Risk Preference and Entrepreneurial Investment at the Top of the Wealth Distribution

This study quantifies the distributional effects of the minimum wage introduced in Germany in 2015. Using detailed Socio-Economic Panel survey data, we assess changes in the hourly wages, working hours, and monthly wages of employees who were entitled to be paid the minimum wage. We employ a difference-in-differences analysis, exploiting regional variation in the “bite” of the minimum wage. At the ...

Wealth and Its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2021

German history over the past 125 years has been turbulent. Marked by two world wars, revolutions and major regime changes, as well as a hyperinflation and three currency reforms, expropriations and territorial divisions, it comprises extreme shocks to study the role of historical events, taxation, asset price changes, portfolio heterogeneity in affecting the wealth distribution in the long run. Combining ...

Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land

The Long Way to Gender Equality: Gender Pay Differences in Germany, 1871-2021: halshs-04424048

This paper provides the _rst time series of the gender earnings ratio for the full-time employed workforce in Germany since the 1870s and compares Ger- many's path with the Swedish and U.S. cases. The industrialization period yielded slow advances in economic gender relations due to women's delayed inclusion in the industrial workforce. The _rst half of the 20th century exhib- ited a marked leap. In ...

‚Queering‘ Social Class: Zum Zusammenhang von sexueller Orientierung, Geschlechtsidentität und sozialer Herkunft

LSBT*-Personen unterscheiden sich häufig in gelebten Familien- und Partnerschaftskonzepten von der heteronormativen Idealvorstellung und weisen womöglich deshalb bedeutsame Differenzen in Bildungsabschlüssen, Löhnen und beruflichen Status verglichen zur heterosexuellen Cisbevölkerung auf. Mithilfe der gezielten Aufstockungsstichprobe von LSBT*-Personen des SOEP und der Onlinebefragung LGBielefeld analysiert ...

Workshop on Life-course Inequality Dynamics

Concerns about inequality and questions of social justice and cohesion have re-entered the public arena and animate debate. In his Nobel prize lecture in 2015, Angus Deaton has outlined three imperatives that are key to understanding inequalities and formulating welfare-enhancing policies: (I) Differences in resources across individuals should be measured not only at specific points in time but...

Women’s Labour Market Attachment and the Gender Wealth Gap

This article examines the evolution of the gender wealth gap in Germanyduring the first decade of the XXI century. This period is characterized byan increase in labour supply of women and change in occupational structure dueto numerous reforms undertaken by the government. We use the Firpo, Fortin,Lemieux detailed decomposition technique throughout the wealth distribution toidentify the main factors ...

High-Income Households Emit More Greenhouse Gases, Primarily Due to Transport Behavior

Greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 65 percent compared to 1990 by 2030 to achieve national climate targets. Nearly one third of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany are caused by private household consumption. Using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, this Weekly Report calculates the amount of CO2 equivalents emitted by households due to residential energy use, nutrition, and transport in Germany. ...

Income, Work, and Health Satisfaction Differ Primarily by Household Income, Age, and Parental Status

Subjective well-being is essential for both quality of life and a healthy society. Studies have shown that satisfied people have better relationships, are more productive, and have a longer life expectancy. General life satisfaction is being discussed as an alternative measure of prosperity beyond GDP. Thus, findings on this topic are relevant for both the scientific community as well as policymakers. ...

Understanding Trends in the German Income Distribution: 2001-2019 (with Robin Jessen)

In this paper we document trends in inequality in earnings and disposable household income for men and women in Germany from 2001 to 2019. We find that males at the lower half of the earnings distribution have lower earnings in 2019 than in 2001. In contrast, female earnings have increased throughout the distribution. Households and the welfare state has cushioned much---but not all---of the...