Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Extending the Kitagawa–Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach to panel data

The Kitagawa–Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach has been widely used to attribute group-level differences in an outcome to differences in endowment, coefficients, and their interactions. The method has been implemented for Stata in the popular oaxaca command for cross-sectional analyses. In recent decades, however, research questions have been more often focused on the decomposition of group-based ...

Structural legacies and the motherhood penalty: How past societal contexts shape mothers’ employment outcomes in reunified Germany

Motherhood penalties vary strongly across societal contexts. While most studies that aim to explain such differences focus on institutions, a smaller literature refers to the influence of cultural norms or a complex interaction between the two. Empirically, however, it is yet unclear if such norms play a role and how they—jointly with institutions—contribute to motherhood penalties. We make use of ...

The Child Penalty: Implications of Parenthood on Labour Market Outcomes for Men and Women in Germany

Whilst gender inequality has been falling in the developed world, child-related gender inequality in pay has stayed constant. In this paper I use German panel data spanning across 33 years from 1984 until 2017 including over 50,000 individuals. The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of the effect of parenthood on women’s and men’s earnings using propensity score matching. I estimate the ...

From dawn till dusk: Implications of full-day care for children’s development

An important issue on the political agenda of many developed countries is the intensive margin of formal child care and, consequently, the effects of expanding the operating hours of child care institutions. We add to this debate by studying the effects of offering full-day child care on child development. Specifically, we analyze the consequences of a substantial increase of full-day slots at the ...

Globalization, Fertility and Marital Behavior in a Lowest-Low Fertility Setting

Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze the effects of exposure to globalization on the fertility and marital behavior in Germany, until recently a lowest-low fertility setting. We find that exposure to greater import competition from Eastern Europe led to worse labor market outcomes and lower fertility rates. In contrast, workers in industries that benefited from increased ...

Wage Determination in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Works Councilors in Germany

The German law on co-determination at the plant level (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz) stipulates that works councilors are neither to be financially rewarded nor penalized for their activities. This regulation contrasts with publicized instances of excessive payments. The divergence has sparked a debate about the need to reform the law. This paper provides representative evidence on wage payments to works ...

Can Regional Gender Ideologies Account for Variation of Gender Pay Gaps? The Case of Germany

While research often invokes gender disparities in wage-determining characteristics to explain gender pay gaps, why these gender disparities and gender pay gaps vary across contexts has received less attention. Therefore, I analyze how subnational gender ideologies predict gender pay gaps in two ways: as directly affecting gender pay gaps and as indirectly predicting gender pay gaps through intermediate ...

Job Placement via Private vs. Public Employment Agencies: Investigating Selection Effects and Job Match Quality in Germany

Employment agencies aim to match individuals to appropriate jobs. There are public and private employment agencies, which co-exist in many countries. Selection effects may be relevant in the sense that private agencies potentially engage in ‘cream-skimming’ by prioritizing highly qualified workers. The resulting job match quality is also important from an individual, a firm, and a society perspective. ...

Estimating tourism social carrying capacity

Initial incidence of carbon taxes and environmental liability. A vehicle ownership approach

A German panel data of vehicle and owner characteristics is used to analyse the incidence of additional carbon taxes. It is shown that an additional carbon tax on fuel used for private transportation is regressive when there is no allocation of tax revenue. When smoothing consumption across time in the face of additional carbon taxes, low income households can reduce the tax burden. When the cost of ...