SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Gleichstellungsimpuls BEEG? Erwerbsverläufe werdender Mütter vor und nach der Elternzeitreform von 2007

Mit der Einführung des Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeitgesetz (BEEG) im Jahr 2007 wurde der Familienpolitik in Deutschland ein Paradigmenwechsel bescheinigt, da erstmals Individuen an die Stelle von Familien in den Fokus der Unterstützungsmaßnahmen rückten. Aus der Familien-forschung liegen bereits einhellige Befunde vor. Zwar kann das BEEG zur Förderung der Geschlechtergleichstellung beitragen, doch ...

Income-Dependent Equivalence Scales and Choice Theory: Implications for Poverty Measurement

The study of poverty is at the heart of economics, and the goal of overcoming it drives the efforts of policy-makers worldwide. Meeting such goals requires confidence (a) in the tools we have to measure poverty, and (b) in our understanding of the determinants of poverty. Here, we focus on the role of household composition in the measurement and analysis of poverty. After presenting some core concepts, ...

Associations of Socioeconomic Disparities with Buccal Dna-Methylation Measures of Biological Aging

Background: Individuals who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are at increased risk for aging-related diseases and perform less well on tests of cognitive function. The weathering hypothesis proposes that these disparities in physical and cognitive health arise from an acceleration of biological processes of aging. Theories of how life adversity is biologically embedded identify epigenetic alterations, ...

Inequality and Its Drivers in Germany, 1840-1914

First Time around: Local Conditions and Multi-dimensional Integration of Refugees

We study the effect of local unemployment and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes. We leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were centrally assigned to live in specific counties. To measure sentiments of native residents towards immigrants, we use geo-coded Twitter data, which provides our “negative sentiment ...

The Long Reach of Class Origin on Financial Investments and Net Worth

In this study, we argue that parents’ class position may influence the type and timing of their offspring's investments in financial assets. These investments may facilitate net worth accumulation beyond direct transfers, contributing to the intergenerational reproduction of social positions. We test these expectations using retrospective life history and prospective panel data for 14 countries from ...

Routes to the Top

Who makes it to the top? We use the leading, socio-economic survey in Germany supplemented by extensive data on the rich to answer this question. We identify the key predictors for belonging to the top 1 percent of income, wealth, and both distributions jointly. Although we consider many, only a few traits matter: Entrepreneurship and self-employment in conjunction with a sizable inheritance of company ...

The role of inherited wealth for wealth inequality in Germany

In this project, a top-corrected wealth distribution is estimated on the basis of the inheritance tax statistics and the SOEP. We analyze the concentration of wealth, the portfolios of the wealthy, the importance of inherited wealth, the gender inheritance gap and the gender wealth gap as well as reactions to inheritance taxation.

(In)equality at the Workplace? Differences in Occupational Safety and Health Measures during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Related Employee Health

Auf Basis der Daten einer Sondererhebung des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels zur Covid-19-Pandemie (SOEP-CoV) werden in diesem Beitrag Unterschiede in der Umsetzung verschiedener personenbezogener und organisatorischer Arbeitsschutzmaßnahmen während der Covid-19-Pandemie sowie deren Zusammenhang mit der individuellen Gesundheit von Beschäftigten untersucht. Hierzu wird zunächst ein kurzer Abriss zu sozialen ...

Livestream: Social Mobility as a Key to Success for Economic Transformation and Reform

Social mobility and equal opportunity are key to thriving societies and economies. In the aftermath of the pandemic and in the context of increasing prices, calls for policymakers to address social and economic inequalities are intensifying. The recently launched Observatory on Social Mobility and Equal Opportunity not only brings together all OECD data points, but also displays the impact of...