Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

How Do Germans React to the Commuting Allowance?

I research the consequences of changes in the deductibility of commuting costs in Germany from 2001 to 2006. Offícial figures provided by the Federal Statistical Office highlight the fact that German taxpayers claimed deductions for commuting allowances to the tune of 23-29 billion e over the years 2001-2004. Granting or not granting these deductions thus has wide ranging fiscal implications, a point ...

Three Essays on the Taxonometries of Labor Income (Dissertation)

Germany (Chapter 7)

The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in the Nineties. An Example of Incremental Innovations in an Ongoing Longitudinal Study

The main aim of the present paper is to historically reappraise the development of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) in the 1990s after the first six waves had been collected. This development was closely connected to the opening of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Wall separating the two German states. In addition to its relevance for the SOEP, this study is also of ...

The dynamics of social exclusion in Germany: solving the east-west dilemma?

Socio-Economic Status and Mortality

Receiving Social Assistance in Germany: Risk and Duration

Although receiving social assistance is a dynamic process, analyses of such processes tend to be static. This is particularly so in Germany where there is no empirical data base for studying processes of poverty and receipt of social assistance, except for the Bremen Longitudinal Social Assistance Sample (LSA). This article draws on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to complement analyses of ...

The German East-West Mortality Difference: Two Crossovers Driven by Smoking

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, mortality was considerably higher in the former East Germany than in West Germany. The gap narrowed rapidly after German reunification. The convergence was particularly strong for women, to the point that Eastern women aged 50–69 now have lower mortality despite lower incomes and worse overall living conditions. Prior research has shown that lower smoking rates among ...

Care for Money? Mortality improvements, increasing intergenerational transfers, and time devoted to the elderly

Background: After the reunification of Germany, mortality among older eastern Germans converged quickly with western German levels. Simultaneously, the pension benefits of eastern Germans rose tenfold. Objective: We make use of German reunification as a natural experiment to show that, first, increasing financial transfers from the elderly to their children led to increasing reverse transfers in the ...

Determinants of School Attainment of Immigrant Children in West Germany