Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Cohort effects and the returns to education in West Germany

Using a Mincer-type wage function, we estimate cohort effects in the returns to education for West German workers born between 1925 and 1974. The main problem to be tackled in the specification is to separately identify cohort, experience, and possibly also age effects in the returns. For women, we find a large and robust decline in schooling premia: in the private sector, the returns to a further ...

Cohort Profile: The Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II)

Similar to other industrialized countries, Germany’s population is ageing. Whereas some people enjoy good physical and cognitive health into old age, others suffer from a multitude of age-related disorders and impairments which reduce life expectancy and affect quality of life. To identify and characterize the factors associated with ‘healthy’ vs. ‘unhealthy’ ageing, we have launched the Berlin Aging ...

Does Personality Matter? Personality factors as determinants of legislative recruitment and legislators’ policrecruitment and policy preferences

The paper inquires into the impact of personality-factors on the selection and self-selection of recruits for parliamentary mandates by comparing the personality profile of German MPs with a matching sample of the general population (matching in terms of education, gender, age and party preferences). It further determines whether MPs personality has an impact on their policy preferences (expansionist ...

How Selective Migration Shapes Environmental Inequality in Germany: Evidence from Micro-level Panel Data

Socio-economically disadvantaged and ethnic minorities are affected by a disproportionately high exposure to environmental pollution. Yet, it is unclear if selective migration causes this disproportionate exposure experienced by low-income and minority households. The study uses longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the process of selective migration and its connection ...

Risk Attitudes, Job Mobility and Subsequent Wage Growth During the Early Career

Job change is a decision under uncertainty: It is associated with costs whereas the decision is made without full knowledge about future benefits. In order to investigate the relationship between willingness to take risks and job mobility, we first extend a model for on-the-job search with nonwage job characteristics by including heterogeneity in risk attitudes. Second, we empirically test the model's ...

Fostering Equality of Opportunity? Compulsory Schooling Reform and Social Mobility in Germany

There is an ongoing debate in the field of social mobility research about whether intergenerational social mobility can be increased by way of education policy. However, evidence on the effects of specific education policies on social mobility continues to be scarce. This article analyses the effect of one specific policy reform, the extension of compulsory schooling in Germany, which has been argued ...

The Effect of the Post-Socialist Transition on Inequality of Educational Opportunity: Evidence from German Unification

In 1990, German unification led to an abrupt and extensive restructuring of the educational system and economy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the latter was reintegrated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). However, the consequences of this large-scale institutional change for the educational inequality between children from different social class backgrounds in East Germany continue ...

Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany

Research on intergenerational social mobility tends to focus on examining the level of overall social fluidity in society. However, from a social justice perspective it can be argued that the type of social fluidity that matters most is upward mobility from the lowest rung of the social ladder. This article examines the labour market chances of children from parents in unskilled working-class positions, ...

Estimating the dynamics of poverty in Europe via TFR approach: the experience of the second half of the nineties

A Comparative Analysis of School-To-Work Transitions in the European Union