Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Educational Qualifications and Wage Inequality: Evidence for Europe

Experimental and Survey Evidence on the Development of Preferences and Skills (dissertation)

The focus of this research is on decisions related to human capital formation and preferences crucial for social interaction. These decisions are analyzed at different stages of the life-cycle, starting with other-regarding preferences in preschoolers, followed by skill formation in adolescents and preferences for honesty in adults. Answering the questions on skill formation and human capital accumulation ...

Is it the family or the neighborhood? Evidence from sibling and neighbor correlations in youth education and health

In this paper, we present sibling and neighbor correlations in school grades and cognitive skills, as well as indicators of physical and mental health, for a sample of German adolescents. In a first step, we estimate sibling correlations and find a substantial influence of shared family and community background on all outcomes. To further disentangle the influence of family background and neighborhood, ...

Spite and cognitive skills in preschoolers

Other-regarding preferences in adults have been examined in depth in the literature. Research has shown that spiteful preferences play a crucial role in the development of human large-scale cooperation. However, there is little evidence of the factors explaining spiteful behavior in children. We investigate the relationship between children’s cognitive skills and spiteful behavior in a sample of 214 ...

Law and social capital: Evidence from the Code Napoleon in Germany

I test whether legal institutions crowd-in social cooperation in the long-run, using the introduction of the Code Napoleon in parts of 19th century Germany as a historical experiment. I find that the application of the Code Napoleon is associated with higher levels of trust and cooperation today. This finding is robust to an identification strategy that uses only individuals located around a discontinuity ...

Revisiting Rebound Effects from Material Resource Use. Indications for Germany Considering Social Heterogeneity

In contrast to the original investigation by William Stanley Jevons, compensations of energy savings due to improved energy efficiency are mostly analyzed by providing energy consumption or greenhouse gas emissions. In support of a sustainable resource management, this paper analyzes so-called rebound effects based on resource use. Material flows and associated expenditures by households allow for ...

The Vast Majority of Employees in Germany Are Satisfied with Their Jobs

The vast majority of workers rate their professional occupations positively; only one in eight is unhappy with his or her job. This has been the case for the past 20 years. There is little difference in the degree of satisfaction between genders, workers in West Germany and East Germany, or among different age groups. Even the level of compensation and the nature of the work itself do not exert any ...

Home Offices: Plenty of Untapped Potential

As far as the share of individuals with a home office is concerned, Germany is below the EU average and lags considerably behind other countries such as France, the UK, or the Scandinavian countries. Only 12 percent of all employees in Germany work primarily or occasionally from home, although this would theoretically be possible in 40 percent of jobs. In most cases, an employee’s desire to work from ...

From School to Work: Patterns in Germany and the United States

Comment to Ronald G. Ehrenberg: Part-time Employment in the United States