Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Gap between the Rich and the Poor Keeps Growing: Seven Questions for Markus M. Grabka

De-Institutionalization or Re-Institutionalization of Citizenship? Expectations of Migrants regarding Naturalization in Germany

Home Sweet Home! Does Moving Have (Lasting) Effects on Housing Satisfaction?

Previous research has found that moving has lasting effects on housing satisfaction while adaptation to changing living environments is surprisingly absent from this research. This paper challenges and extends this current state of research. Using data from a large-scale German household panel we find that housing satisfaction (a) sharply declines before the move (self-selection into relocation), (b) ...

Needs, Comparisons, and Adaptation: The Importance of Relative Income for Life Satisfaction

We examine the association between income and life satisfaction. Referring to the so-called Easterlin paradox, three mechanisms are discussed: basic human need satisfaction, interpersonal comparison processes, and adaptation. Hypotheses resulting from these considerations are empirically tested on the basis of two data sets: a self conducted cross-sectional survey among the population of Munich and ...

Do Hours Restrictions Matter? A discrete family labor supply model with endogeneous wages and hours restrictions

Joint Labour Supply Decisions of Couples

Loosening Hours Constraints on the Supply of Labor - What if Germans Had a Dutch Labor Market?

Total employment in Germany is supposed to increase if people could realize their desired working hours. However, this back-of-the-envelope calculation overestimates the effect of loosening hours constraints, because even in a very flexible labor market there will exist hours restrictions for certain jobs and occupations. Therefore, I simulate Germans' working hours in a more exible but real world, ...

Lower wage rates for fewer hours? A simultaneous wage-hours model for Germany

In this paper the impact of working hours on the gross hourly wage rate of West German women is analyzed. We use a simultaneous wage-hours model which takes into account the participation decision. First, our estimates show that the hourly wage rate is strongly affected by the working hours. In order to avoid any assumptions about the functional form, we estimate linear spline functions. Second, we ...

The German part-time wage gap: bad news for men?

Despite the increasing incidence of part-time employment in Germany, the effects on wage rates are studied rarely. I therefore use SOEP panel data from 1984 to 2010 and apply different econometric approaches and definitions of part-time work to measure the socalled part-time wage gap of both, men and women in East and West Germany. A very robust finding is that part-time working men are subject to ...

Experienced Well-Being and Labor Market Status: The Role of Pleasure and Meaning

This paper examines the experienced well-being of employed and unemployed workers. We use the survey-adapted Day Reconstruction Method of the Innovation Sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study to analyze the role of the employment status for well-being, incorporating time use. We use the novel P-index to summarize the average share of pleasurable minutes on a day and show that in contrast to ...