Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Is Any Job Better than No Job? Life Satisfaction and Re-employment

Using data for West Germany from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyse the impact of transitions from unemployment to full-time employment on life satisfaction, with special focus on the influence of job quality. We apply various indicators of job quality (self-reported job satisfaction, wages, type of contract, and indicators of the fit between the worker and job requirements). We control for ...

Wages as Risk Compensation in Germany

Do Firms Pay for Perceived Risks at Work?

Severance Payments for Dismissed Employees in Germany

Job Preferences as Revealed by Employee Initiated Job Changes

Many previous studies try to discover job preferences by directly asking individuals. Since it is not sure, whether answers to these surveys are relevant for actual behaviour, this empirical examination offers a new approach based on representative German data. Employees who quit their job and find a new one, compare the two jobs with respect to eight job characteristics: type of work, pay, chances ...

Gender pay gaps among highly educated professionals — Compensation components do matter

Making use of panel data from a survey of highly educated professionals, gender pay gaps are explored with regard to total compensation as well as to individual compensation components. The results indicate meaningful male–female wage differentials for this quite homogeneous group of people working in one specific industry: in particular for more experienced employees in higher positions of firm hierarchies ...

Trust and Control at the Workplace: Evidence from Representative Samples of Employees in Europe

Based on two representative samples of employees, the German Socio Economic Panel and the European Social Survey, we explore the relation between certain measures of control in employment relationships (i. e. working time regulations, use of performance appraisal systems, monitoring by supervisors, autonomy to organize the work) and individuals’ inclination to trust others. Trust is measured by the ...

Bonus Payments, Hierarchy Levels and Tenure: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence

Using data on executive compensation for the German chemical industry, we investigate the relevance of two theoretical approaches that focus on bonuses as part of a long term wage policy of a firm. The first approach argues that explicit bonuses serve as substitutes for implicit career concerns. The second approach claims that bonuses are used as complements to an executive’s internal career. Our data ...

Determinants of Further Training: Evidence for Germany

We explore the relevance and development of further training in private sector firms using the German Socio-Economic Panel, which is a representative sample of German residents. We focus on formal training and explore possible individual and job-based determinants of its incidence. We also show changes over time during a 20-year observation period from 1989 to 2008. Most hypotheses are supported by ...

A Comparative Analysis of Augmented Wealth in Germany and the United States

Research on wealth inequality usually focuses on real and financial assets, while (public) pension wealth receives little attention. This paper provides for the first time evidence on the levels and composition of and inequalities in households’ positions of augmented wealth – the sum of net worth and pension wealth – in two countries with distinct welfare regimes, the United States and Germany. Micro ...