Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Perceived Economic Uncertainty and Fertility: Evidence From a Labor Market Reform

Whereas in theory individuals tend to postpone fertility decisions in times of economic uncertainty, empirical evidence on that question is scarce. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (N=4,548), the authors estimated the effect of economic concerns on the probability of becoming pregnant in the next year. They exploited exogenous variation in economic concerns induced by the announcement ...

Learning intensity effects in students’ mental and physical health – Evidence from a large scale natural experiment in Germany

In this study, we analyze the health effects of a recent education reform in Germany exposing students to increased learning intensity. The reform shortened the higher secondary education track by one year. As the overall curriculum required for graduation was held constant, this led to an increase in instruction hours in the remaining school years. The reform was introduced at different points in ...

Income and Employment Effects of Trade and Offshoring in Modern Labor Markets (Dissertation)

Dynamic Properties of Energy Affordability Measures

Measures of affordability and of fuel poverty are applied in practice to assess the affordability of energy services, for example, or of water or housing. The extensive body of literature on affordability measures has little overlap with the existing literature on poverty measurement. A comprehensive assessment of the response of affordability measures as a result of changes in the distribution of ...

The determinants of church attendance and religious human capital in Germany: Evidence from panel data

This paper explores determinants of church attendance and the formation of 'religious human capital' in Germany within a Becker-style allocation-of-time framework. The analysis is based on data derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Taking advantage of the longitudinal structure of the data, we are able to control for unobservable heterogeneity by applying a random-effects ...

The impact of introducing social security contributions on "marginal employment" on the labour supply of married women in Germany

Do Catholic women with non-smoking husbands earn less in a second job? - assorted topics in empirical labor economics (Dissertation)

Does religion influence the labor supply of married women in Germany?

Up in the Skies? The Relationship between Body Height and Earnings in Germany

Height and weight in Germany, evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel, 2002

This paper examines the socio-economic variation in height and weight using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Results reinforce previous research insofar as height is associated with socio-economic differences. For example, a low maternal schooling level or a lower position in the income distribution is negatively correlated with the height of West Germans. Furthermore, there is a west–east ...