Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Economic Consequences of Family Break-Ups Income Before and After Family Break-Ups of Women in Germany and the United States

This paper analyzes the economic consequences of family break-ups on women’s household income using fixed effects panel regression on German (SOEP) and US American (PSID) panel data. Since Germany and the United States are two examples of opposing social models, reflected in their policy framework regarding family break-ups, country differences in the economic consequences are assumed. The cross-national ...

Economic consequences of family dissolution: Comparing Germany and the United States since the 1980s, and Married and Cohabiting Parents in Germany (dissertation)

Welfare states and policies have changed greatly over the past decades, mostly characterized by retrenchments in terms of government spending or in terms of restricted access to certain benefits. In the area of family policies, however, a lot of countries have simultaneously expanded provisions and transfers for families. Bringing together the macro analysis of policy variation and household income ...

Social Approval in a Model of Time Allocation

Social Participation over the Life Course: A Longitudinal Study of Work and Family Events

Social participation is a dynamic process that changes over the life course, while people fill different social roles as they age. Previous studies on social participation have looked at differences between age groups, but the great majority is based on cross-sectional data, with the inevitable limitations that go along with that. The first objective of this study is to provide a descriptive account ...

SOEP Wave Report 2012

2012 was an eventful year for the SOEP: The survey Families in Germany (FiD) released data collected for an overall assessment of German family policy measures for use outside the project. The SOEP Innovation Sample was expanded to almost 2,500 households. And, at the 10th SOEP User Conference, more than 80 scholars from around the world presented new research on income, education, health, and happiness. ...

Subjective Income and Employment Expectations and Preferences for Redistribution

Does Democracy Foster Trust?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Effects of Having a Sibling on Geographic Mobility and Labor Market Outcomes

This paper formulates a model to explain how parental care responsibilities and family structure interact in affecting children's mobility characteristics. Our main result is that the mobility of young adults crucially depends on the presence of a sibling. Siblings compete in location and employment decisions to direct parental care decisions towards their preferred outcome. Only children are ...

The role of social networks in determining migration and labour market outcomes: Evidence from German reunification

This paper empirically examines social network explanations for migration decisions in the context of German reunification. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we first show that the presence of a family in West Germany is an important predictor for the migration hazard rate of East Germans. We then explore whether pre-migration networks have a discernible impact on the economic ...

Poverty in American Eyes