Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Health shocks and health behavior: a long-term perspective

Several empirical papers suggest that individuals improve health-related behaviors in response to adverse shocks to physical health. However, little evidence exists regarding the questions of (i) how long-lasting these behavioral responses are and (ii) whether individuals respond similarly to mental health shocks. Using individual-level survey data from Germany and combining regression augmented inverse-probability ...

The hiring of older workers: evidence from Germany

This article analyses how hiring older workers adjusts to demographic change in the labour force by using information from more than 500,000 firms in Germany. We find robust evidence that firms faced with an ageing labour market hire relatively more older workers. However, the pace of this adjustment is relatively slow, particularly when ageing happens outside the firm. The tendency to employ older ...

The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992-2019

This paper analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since 1992, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. Inequality rose from the 1990s to the late 2000s due to falling labor incomes among the bottom 50% and rising incomes in the top 10%. This trend reversed after 2007 as labor incomes across the bottom 90% increased. ...

The distribution of national income in Germany, 1992–2019

This paper estimates and analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since reunification, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. We find that pre-tax national income inequality has increased since the 1990s, though to a lesser extent than suggested by previous studies. Our results draw parallels in top income structure ...

Performance Pay and Happiness: Work vs. Home?

Using German survey data, we show conflicting influences of performance pay on overall life satisfaction. The overall influence reflects a strong positive influence through domains of life satisfaction associated with the job (job satisfaction, individual earnings satisfaction and household earning satisfaction) and a strong negative influence through domains away from the job (health satisfaction, ...

Variable pay and work hours: does performance pay reduce the gender time gap?

Using German survey data, we show in worker fixed effects estimates that performance pay is associated with a substantially lower gender hours gap. While performance pay increases the work hours of both men and women, the increase is much larger for women than for men. We argue that our finding likely reflects differences in household production and specialization by gender. Thus, we show that performance ...

Detach to Thrive: Psychological Detachment from Work and Employee Well-Being

Psychological detachment from work implies mentally disconnecting from work during off-job time. Using representative longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we identify psychological detachment from work as a key driver of employee well-being. This finding holds for a broad set of well-being indicators, including emotional responses, job satisfaction, life domain satisfactions, and ...

Health and Utilisation of Healthcare services in Germany

Mental health of Ukrainian refugees in Germany: results of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey

AIMS: Although Ukrainian refugees currently represent the largest group of asylum seekers living in Germany, little is known about their mental health. This contribution aims to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders among Ukrainian refugees as well as to examine the determinants of mental health outcomes. METHODS: The analyses are based on representative data from the ...

Unintended social effects of newborn genomic data use and storage in the age of sociogenomics and genetic surveillance

Genetic data are increasingly important in the field of medicine for diagnostics as well as preventative health care. With the emergence of rapid and cost-effective DNA-sequencing technology, proposals and pilot studies of genomic newborn screening programs have been put in motion in several countries, with the hope of broad medical benefits for future generations. These plans are raising significant ...