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Assessing the Effects of District-Level Segregation on Meritocratic Beliefs in Germany

In recent years, researchers have grappled with the phenomenon that public demand for redistribution has not systematically increased in response to rising inequality. Meritocratic beliefs have been suggested as an explanation for this observation, because they can help legitimize inequalities. Past research has identified local-level inequality, segregation, or diversity as important factors for how ...

SOEP 2024 – 15th International German Socio-Economic Panel User Conference

The 15th International German Socio-Economic Panel User Conference (SOEP2024) this year was held at BBAW in Berlin from July 4 to July 5, 2024. The conference provided researchers who use the SOEP (including the SOEP part of the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) and LIS/LWS data) with the opportunity to present and discuss their work with their peers. Researchers of all disciplines (e.g.,...

Response to 13 concerns relating to a renewable energy pool

The conversion of electricity generation to renewable energies such as wind and solar is the most important building block for a climate-neutral economy and Germany's independence from energy imports. The energy crisis in the wake of the war in Ukraine shows that an acceleration of the energy transition is urgently needed. "Contracts for Differences" (CfDs) can be an effective means of promoting the ...

SOEP-Core v37: Codebook for the EU-SILC-like panel for Germany based on the SOEP

Pension and Long-Term Care Expectations: Evidence from Germany

Two significant drivers of a person's financial situation in old age are pension income and costs for long-term care dependence. Both are unknown when the person makes her most important financial decisions, which makes it particularly interesting to understand her beliefs about them and how they influence her choices. In a representative survey, we elicit detailed expectations about individuals...

Wealth in Couples: Introduction to the Special Issue

The assumption that economic resources are equally shared within households has been found to be untenable for income but is still often upheld for wealth. In this introduction to the special issue “Wealth in Couples”, we argue that within-household inequality in wealth is a pertinent and under-researched area that is ripe for development. To this end, we outline the relevance of wealth for demographic ...

Reacting to Changing Paradigms: How and Why to Reform Electricity Markets

The energy crisis and the accelerated transition to climate neutrality result in a shift from the traditional energy trilemma to an “energy quartet” across Europe. Firstly, the criteria of affordability, previously focused on short-term price developments, broadens to reliable affordability including in crises. Secondly, clean energy traditionally focused on clean production now extends to clean energy ...

The Signalling Channel of Negative Interest Rates

Negative policy rates can convince markets that deposit rates will remain lower-for-longer, even when current deposit rates are constrained by zero. This is the signalling channel of negative interest rates. We analyse the optimality and effectiveness of negative rates in the context of this novel transmission channel. In a stylized model, we prove two necessary conditions for optimality: time-consistency ...

Laura Schmitz has successfully defended her dissertation

Congratulations to Laura Schmitz for her dissertation defense. Her dissertation was titled 'Understanding the Impact of Education and Environmental Policy on Human Capital Formation: Four Essays in Applied Economics', Katharina Spiess and Felix Weinhardt were her supervisors. Laura will not be leaving us, but is now starting as a PostDoc in the Energy, Transport, Environment Department.

Energy Transition Metals: Bottleneck for Net-Zero Emissions?

The energy transition requires substantial amounts of metals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium. Are these metals a bottleneck? We identify metal-specific demand shocks, estimate supply elasticities, and study the price impact of the transition in a structural scenario analysis. Prices of these four metals would reach previous historical peaks but for an unprecedented, sustained period ...