Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Contextual effects on individual development of subjective well-being in the second half of life

Lifespan psychology and life course sociology have long acknowledged the role of context for individual functioning and development throughout life. Consistent with these conceptual notions, empirical studies show that various contextual factors influence development of individual-level outcomes. However, we know little about how contextual factors shape individual-level well-being and how well-being ...

Terminal decline in well-being differs between residents in East Germany and West Germany

Lifespan research has long been interested in how contexts shape individual development. Using the separation and later reunification of Germany as a kind of natural experiment we examine whether and how living and dying in the former East or West German context has differentially shaped late-life development of well-being. We apply multi-level growth models to annual reports of life satisfaction collected ...

How does availability of county-level healthcare services shape terminal decline in well-being?

Both lifespan psychology and life course sociology highlight that contextual factors influence individual functioning and development. In the current study, we operationalize context as county-level care services in inpatient and outpatient facilities (e.g., number of care facilities, privacy in facilities) and investigate how the care context shapes well-being in the last years of life. To do so, ...

Reassessing Intergenerational Mobility in Germany and the United States: The Impact of Differences in Lifecycle Earnings Patterns

Using longitudinal data on fathers and their children, this study compares the extent of intergenerational mobility in Germany and the United States and introduces an estimation strategy that corrects estimates of intergenerational earnings elasticities for a possible lifecycle bias. In contrast to previous studies, we find that the extent of intergenerational mobility is more limited in the US than ...

The Integration of Immigrants Into West German Society - The Impact of Social Assistance

Initial Predictors of Life Satisfaction in Early Adulthood

Subjective Well-being Among Young People in Transition to Adulthood

Interrelationships among Locus of Control and Years in Management and Unemployment: Differences by Gender

This paper focuses on gender differences in the role played by locus of control within a model that predicts outcomes for men and women at two opposite poles of the labour market: high level managerial / leadership positions and unemployment. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and ...

A Critique and Reframing of Personality in Labour Market Theory: Locus of Control and Labour Market Outcomes

This article critically examines the theoretical arguments that underlie the literature linking personality traits to economic outcomes and provides empirical evidence indicating that labour market outcomes influence personality outcomes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and negative ...

Why Men Might 'Have It All' While Women Still Have to Choose between Career and Family in Germany

This study used data from the German Socio-economic Panel to examine gender differences in the extent to which self-reported subjective well-being was associated with occupying a high-level managerial position in the labour market, compared with employment in non-leadership, non-high-level managerial positions, unemployment, and non-labour market participation. Our results indicated that a clear hierarchy ...