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An Economic Approach to Survey-Based Measurement of Well-Being

How should economists measure people’s well-being? A comprehensive measure of well-being is essential for accurately estimating the effects of a policy or intervention, tracking social progress, and assessing inequality. Traditional measures, such as compensating variation in microeconomics and Gross Domestic Progress in macroeconomics, largely restrict attention to market goods. These measures...

Energy Price Shock Slows German Economy - Global Growth Remains Moderate

The German economy is failing to gain momentum after three weak years. At the turn of the year, a modest recovery appeared to be taking hold, driven primarily by domestic demand and private consumption. However, in addition to the structural problems already present, the German economy must now also contend with the consequences of the Iran War. The energy price shock has halted the recovery before ...

SOEP-IS Study Confirms the Knobe Effect

A study conducted within the SOEP Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS) by Christoph Schmidt-Petri, Daniel Labarca Pinto, and Carsten Schröder with 2,295 respondents confirms that people are much more likely to attribute intentionality to harmful side effects than to beneficial ones. The findings replicate a classic result from experimental philosophy using representative population data and highlight the potential ...

Quantifying the Knobe Effect: Population-level Patterns and Heterogeneity Analyses

An influential survey by Joshua Knobe (2003) indicates that the cognitive process ascribing intentionality to an agent is mediated by the perceived moral worth of the action. To assess the external validity of the finding and to obtain more precise estimates of effect sizes, the present study replicates this canonical experiment with a large scale random sample of the German population (N = 2,295). ...

Comparing Panel Retention among Ukrainian and Other Refugees in a German Probability-Based Panel: Evidence from a Decomposition Analysis

Despite the rise in global refugee migration, probability panels surveying refugees remain rare. The German IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, conducted annually since 2016, provides valuable panel data for research. In 2023, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sample of Ukrainian refugees was added, along with a refreshment sample of refugees from other countries. This paper examines household-, ...

Diffusion of Cumulative Advantage? How Wealth and Health Trajectories Co-Evolve Across the Life Course among Older Adults

Objectives Cumulative advantage is a central concept in life course research. Prior research has primarily focused on one outcome domain, overlooking the possibility that cumulative advantage could extend into other domains–what we refer to as diffusion of cumulative advantage. We build on and extend cumulative inequality theory to conceptualize diffusion and apply it to wealth and health, two domains ...

Steuersenkungen: Eigentor für die arbeitende Mitte?

Introducing Open Data Format: A Platform-Independent, Non-Proprietary, Metadata-Enriched, Multilingual Data Format for Tabular Data

This paper introduces the Open Data Format (ODF), a non-proprietary, metadata-enriched, and zipcompressed data format for tabular data alongside statistical software packages. It embeds structured, multilingual metadata directly within the data file, using the well-established DDI-Codebook standard (DDI Alliance, 2014), and enables access to both data and documentation within common statistical environments. ...

From first-mover risk to late-mover risk in the steel transition

The project will analyze how to deploy the first wave of near-zero emission primary steel plants, leading to the point where industry perceptions shift to considering late mover risk in the transition more dangerous than first-mover risk. We will identify unilateral policy approaches that avoid putting clean primary steel producers at a disadvantage in international trade, and plurilateral...

Migration History Variable (mighist) Now Available

SOEP data users can now request the mighist (“migration history”) variable and its accompanying information variable mighist_info for SOEP-Core v41 by contacting soepmail@diw.de. Both variables will be included in the upcoming SOEP-Core v42 release. By introducing mighist, SOEP adopts the migration history concept used in Germany’s Microcensus, improving comparability with official statistics and ...