Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Wage Cyclicality under Different Regimes of Industrial Relations

Since there is scant evidence on the role of industrial relations in wage cyclicality, this paper analyzes the effect of collective wage contracts and of works councils on real wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data for western Germany, we find that works councils affect wage growth only in combination with collective bargaining. Wage adjustments to positive and negative economic shocks are ...

Labour Market Segmentation: Standard and Non-Standard Employment in Germany

Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel provide insight into the relationship between standard and non-standard work, from the perspective of dual labour market theory. We identify two segments that largely correspond to the common distinction between these forms of employment and find substantial differences in the determination of wages, as well as the composition of worker and job characteristics. ...

Temporary Contracts - the new European inequality? Comparing men and women in West Germany and France

Are fixed-term jobs bad for your health?: A comparison of West-Germany and Spain

The Influence of Changing Hours of Work on Happiness and Life-Satisfaction

This paper asks whether part-time work makes women happy. Previous research on labour supply has assumed that as workers freely choose their optimal working hours on the basis of their innate preferences and the hourly wage rate, outcome reflects preference. This paper tests this assumption by measuring the impact of changes in working-hours on life satisfaction in two countries (the UK and Germany ...

A review of the OECD Income Distribution Database

The Skill Loss of Older East Germans after Unification

Access to Citizenship and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants

Immigrants often have lower employment rates and earnings than natives. Our empirical analysis relies on two reforms generating exogenous variation in the waiting time for citizenship. We find that faster access to citizenship improves the economic situation of immigrant women, especially their labour market attachment with higher employment rates, longer working hours and more stable jobs. Immigrants ...

Access to Citizenship and the Social Integration of Immigrants

We study whether the option to naturalize improves the social integration of immigrants in the destination country. The empirical analysis relies on two immigration reforms in Germany, a country with a traditionally weak record of immigrant assimilation. For identification, we exploit the introduction of citizenship eligibility rules that varied across year of arrival and birth cohorts. Our results ...

Taxing Childcare: Effects on Family Labor Supply and Children

Previous studies report a wide range of estimates for how female labor supply responds to childcare prices. We shed new light on this question using a reform that raised the prices of public daycare. Parents respond by reducing public daycare and increasing childcare at home. Parents also reduce informal childcare indicating that public daycare and informal childcare are complements. Female labor force ...