Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Do Women Respond to Changes in Family Policy? A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Duration of Mothers’ Employment Interruptions in Germany

Based on a sequence of policy changes in Germany’s parental leave programme, the article uses an interrupted time-series design to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between mothers’ labour force behaviour and family policy. Using event history modelling techniques and 1984–2010 data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, the analysis shows that mothers have strongly responded to various ...

Analyzing the Employment Status with Panel Data from the GSOEP. A Comparison of the MECOSA and the GEE1 Approach for Marginal Models

The Generalised Estimating Equations - A Comparison of Procedures Available in Commercial Statistical Software Packages

The Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) proposed by Liang and Zeger (1986) and Zeger and Liang (1986) have found considerable attention in the last decade (for an overview see e.g. Ziegler, and Blettner, 1998). Several self-made programs for solving the GEE are available. This paper presents a comparison of three GEE procedures that are already available in SAS PROC GENMOD, STATA procedure XTGEE ...

A Comparison of the Burden of Out‐of‐Pocket Health Payments in Denmark, Germany and Poland

It is important to monitor equity of access to health services in all countries. We assessed the levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending in three European countries: Denmark, Germany and Poland. Using data from national databases (i.e., Statistics Denmark, German Socio-Economic Panel, and National Statistical Office of Poland) for the period 2000–2010, we applied common methods to assess the ...

Earnings Growth for Guest Workers and West Germans - Cross-Section and Panel Estimates

Essays in electricity economics: Empirical, numerical and theoretical perspectives on renewable energy and cross-border integration

Two developments in European electricity markets are eminent: the large-scale deployment of renewable resources and the closer interaction across borders. Both developments entail great potentials for efficiency gains, and imply challenges of integration. This dissertation contributes to the economic understanding of both integration challenges. To this end, it combines empirical, theoretical, and ...

Convergence or divergence? Immigrant wage assimilation patterns in Germany

Using a rich German panel data set, I estimate wage assimilation patterns for immigrants in Germany. This study contributes to the literature by performing separate estimations by skill groups and controlling for a wide range of socio-economic background variables. It aims to answer the question whether Germany can be considered an attractive host country from an immigrant's perspective. Comparisons ...

Estimating Price Elasticities of Convalescent Care Programs

This study is the first to estimate price elasticities of demand for convalescent care programmes. In 1997, the German legislature more than doubled the daily co-payments for the publicly insured from €6 to €13. The measure caused the overall demand for convalescent care treatments to fall by 20 to 25%. I estimate the price elasticity for medical rehabilitation programmes aimed at preventing work disability ...

Measurement of health, health inequality, and reporting heterogeneity

Using representative survey data of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for 2006, we show that the magnitude of health inequality measures like the concentration index (CI) depends crucially on the underlying health measure. The highest degree of inequality is found when dichotomized subjective health measures like health satisfaction or self-assessed health (SAH) are employed. With the use ...

Long-term absenteeism and moral hazard - Evidence from a natural experiment

This paper shows that long-term sick employees are unlikely to be very responsive to moderate monetary labor supply incentives. The paper, theoretically and empirically, evaluates the labor supply effects of cuts in statutory sick pay levels on long-term absenteeism in Germany. Cutting sick pay did not significantly reduce the average incidence and duration of sick leave periods longer than six weeks. ...