Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Impact of Educational and Religious Homogamy on Marital Stability

Using a rich panel data set from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test whether spouses who are similar to each other in certain respects have a lower probability of divorce than dissimilar spouses. We focus on the effect of homogamy with respect to education and church attendance. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that usually, positive assortative mating is optimal. Our results, however, ...

Labor division between wife and husband and the risk of divorce: New evidence for Germany

Using German panel data from 1984 to 2007, we analyze the impact of labor division between husband and wife on the risk of divorce. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that specialization in domestic and market work, respectively, reduces the risk of separation. Traditionally, the breadwinner role is assigned to the husband, however, female labor force participation and their wages have ...

System-Based Analysis of Income Distribution Impacts on Mobility Behaviour

How to do emprirical economics

Kick It Like Özil? Decomposing the Native-Migrant Education Gap

We investigate second-generation migrants and native children at several stages in the German education system to analyze the determinants of the persistent native–migrant gap. In particular, if migrant and native children shared the same socioeconomic family background, would we still observe differences in education outcomes? Applying linear and matching decomposition methods to carefully account ...

Does Cultural Heritage affect Employment decisions? - Empirical Evidence for First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in Germany

An Economic Analysis of Marital Dissolution in West-Germany

(Why) are immigrants unhappy?

Recent studies suggest that migrants may be less satisfied with their ‘new’ lives than members of the host population and worry that this may be driven by cultural factors, such as feelings of not belonging. Motivated by this concern, this paper analyses the life satisfaction of immigrants once settled in the host country. We rely on the German Socio-Economic Panel’s immigrant sample for the years ...

An Empirical Note on Religiosity and Social Trust using German Survey Data

In this empirical research note, we use a large scale German household survey data set to analyze the correlation between religiosity and social trust. Religiosity takes into account religious affiliations (Catholic, Protestant, other Christian, Muslim/Islam, other religions, none) and the frequency of church attendance. In order to measure social trust, we use three outcome variables (willingness ...

Reservation Wages and the Wage Flexibility Puzzle

Wages are only mildly cyclical, implying that shocks to labour demand have a larger short-run impact on unemployment rather than wages, at odds with the quantitative predictions of the canonical search model – even if wages are only occasionally renegotiated. We argue that one source of the wage flexibility puzzles is plausibly the model for the determination of reservation wages, and consider an alternative ...