Search

Europe Doesn't Need More Public Spending

Power System Transformation toward Renewables: Investment Scenarios for Germany

We analyze distinctive investment scenarios for the integration of fluctuating renewables in the German power system. Using a combined model for dispatch, transmission, and investment, three different investment options are considered, including gas-fired power plants, pumped hydro storage, and transmission lines. We find that geographically optimized power plant investments dominate in the reference ...

Thirty Years of the Socio-Economic Panel

Thirty years ago, in February 1984, interviewers from TNS Infratest rang the doorbells of approximately 6,000 households across the Federal Republic of Germany and invited them to participate in the study “Living in Germany”, as the SOEP is known to its respondents. This year, we leafed through our files and thought back on what has happened over the last 30 years: What events have shaped the lives ...

Data Distribution SOEP.v29

The 2013 SOEP data release was version 29, which means that29 waves of SOEP data are now available. The range of data weprovide has also expanded to include FID Version 4.0 and the firstversion of SOEP-IS. And, to offer our users integrated documentation,we have developed a new documentation system.

Life Satisfaction in Germany at Highest Levels since Reunification

Today, German citizens are happier on average than at any other point in time since reunification. Although more than 20 years have passed, the level of happiness in eastern Germany is still significantly lower than that in western Germany. This is demonstrated by the most recent long-term Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study data gathered by DIW Berlinin cooperation with TNS Infratest Sozialforschung. ...

Poor, Unemployed, and Politically Inactive?

Low income earners and job seekers are less interested and active in politics than people above the at-risk-of-poverty threshold and the working population. Compared to other European democracies, Germany has slightly above-average levels of inequality of political participation. Data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study suggest that this inequality has followed an upward trend over the last ...

Reduction in Income Inequality Faltering

Inequality of disposable incomes in Germany has decreased slightly since its peak in 2005. However, this trend did not continue in 2011. The most important reasons for this were the inequality in market incomes, including capital incomes, which had increased again. Besides this finding, the updated analyses of personal income distribution based on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study show that the ...

Leisure Behavior of Young People: Education-Oriented Activities Becoming Increasingly Prevalent

Young people’s leisure activities are significantly different today than they were ten years ago. The obvious use of communication and entertainment electronics, such as cell phones, computers, and games consoles is only one aspect - there are also less visible changes: informal activities such as meeting with friends are being increasingly sidelined by education-oriented activities like extra-curricular ...

Summary Report SOEP Fieldwork in 2013

In this chapter, we summarize the most important features and results of the 2013 fieldwork in the various parts of the SOEP sample system. A general summary of the SOEP survey fieldwork unit at TNS Infratest was part of the 2012 wave report. We do not replicate this wave-invariant general information in this year’s chapter but instead refer to last year’s foreword (part III, p. 83 ff), which provides ...

Gender Identity and Womens' Supply of Labor and Non-Market Work: Panel Data Evidence for Germany

This paper aims to verify results of the innovative study on gender identity for the USA by Bertrand et al. (2015) for Germany. They found that women who would earn more than their husbands distort their labor market outcome in order not to violate traditional gender identity norms. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) we also find that the distribution of the share of income ...