Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Endowment Effect in the General Population

We study the endowment effect and expectation-based reference points in the field leveraging the setup of the Socio-Economic Panel. Households receive a small item for taking part in the panel, and we randomly assign respondents either a towel or a notebook, which they can exchange at the end of the interview. We observe a trading rate of 32 percent, consistent with an endowment effect, but no relationship ...

Your Place in the World: Relative Income and Global Inequality

Although there is abundant evidence on individual preferences for policies that reduce national inequality, there is very little evidence on preferences for policies addressing global inequality. To investigate the latter, we conducted a two-year, face-to-face survey experiment on a representative sample of Germans. We measure how individuals form perceptions of their ranks in the national and global ...

Adding household surveys to the behavioral economics toolbox: insights from the SOEP Innovation Sample

Integrating economic experiments into household surveys provides unique possibilities. We introduce the German Socio-Economic Panel’s Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS), which offers researchers detailed panel data and the possibility to collect personalized experimental and survey data for free. We present the options that this provides and give examples illustrating these options.

Fundamentally Reforming the DI System: Evidence from German Notch Cohorts

We study a fundamental reform of the public Disability Insurance (DI) system in Germany. Effective 2001, cohorts born after 1960 are no longer eligible for “occupational DI.” Occupational DI (ODI) implies benefit eligibility when health shocks prevent employees from working in their previous occupation. For the affected “notch cohorts”, the new DI eligibility rules require work disability in any job. ...

Determinants of welfare benefit use of immigrant groups - longitudinal evidence from Germany

While recent literature in Germany has compared predictors of welfare use between EU and non-EU immigrants, refugees have yet to be added to the analysis. Using survey data of approximately 4,000 immigrants living in Germany, I examine the determinants of basic unemployment benefits receipt for intra-EU immigrants, refugees, and third country immigrants. In particular, I investigate how education affects ...

Child and adolescent refugees: Living situations among refugee families in Germany

Sexual Orientation, Workplace Authority and Occupational Segregation: Evidence from Germany

An extensive body of research has documented the relationship between sexual orientation and income, but only a few studies have examined the effects of sexual orientation on workplace authority. This article investigates the probability of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people having (high-level) workplace authority and the effects of occupational gender segregation. It analyses four waves of data ...

The Long-Term Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Maternal Health and Subjective Well-Being

This paper studies the long-term impact of a paid parental leave reform in former East Germany in 1986 on maternal physical and mental health and subjective well-being. The reform extended paid leave for first-time mothers by six months to a maximum of twelve months. I use representative survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and a difference-in-differences design in a quasi-experimental ...

Rents, refugees, and the populist radical right

The recent successes of populist radical right (PRR) parties have caused major upheavals across European political landscapes. Yet, the roots of their rising popularity continue to be widely debated. We contribute to these debates by advancing a thus far underexplored argument of rising rent burden as key to understanding contemporary PRR vote and nativist attitudes. Rising rents lie at the heart of ...

Phasing out payroll tax subsidies

Many countries subsidize low income employments or small jobs. These subsidies and their phasing out can generate labor market frictions and distort incentives. The German Minijob program subsidizes low income jobs. It generates a 'Minijob trap' with substantial bunching along the earnings distribution. Since 2003, the Midijob subsidy aims to reduce the Minijob-induced notch in the net earnings ...