Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Angry together or agitated alone? The role of social capital in the geographies of discontent

Research on the spatial variation in ‘populist’ and ‘anti-establishment’ voting focuses on the role of ‘left behind places’, where these parties are particularly successful in regions that have been left behind economically or culturally. Applying this perspective to the German case, this paper examines the spatial distribution of ‘populist’ and ‘anti-establishment’ voting. Using micro-data from the ...

Educational qualifications, recognition, training aspirations and educational attainment

Introduction

Overall conclusion

Determinants of Refugees’ Identification with Country of Origin and Host Country and Their Naturalization Intentions: Evidence from Germany

Despite extensive research on immigrants? identification and its integration implications, a substantial gap remains in understanding the factors and mechanisms underlying refugees? identification processes. This study addresses this gap by adopting a comprehensive perspective, simultaneously examining their origin-country and host-country identification alongside naturalization intentions among recently ...

Psychological traits predict who uses self-help products but usage is not associated with two-year personality change

Self-help products such as books and apps are booming, often promising personal growth and well-being gains. Despite their popularity, little research has examined the psychological predictors and consequences of self-help product use. Here, we tested predictors of self-help product use and their links with changes in personality traits, life satisfaction, and self-esteem over 2 years in a representative ...

Dynamic networks of social contact, social desire, and affect across time scales

Social relationships are central to well-being because they fulfill social affiliation needs. To explain how social needs are regulated, theories describe daily-life processes among social desire, social contact, and affect. Still, these processes remain empirically underexplored because of their complexity. In this study, we estimated multivariate associations of social desire and affect with social ...

Rising Educational Divides in Attitudes: How Polarization across Cohorts Can Mask Age-Related Polarization

The question of whether attitudes become more polarized over time has stimulated significant scientific and political debate. This study is the first to show that polarization processes can occur both across cohorts and with rising age and that cohort-based polarization may obscure age-related polarization. I introduce the age polarization and cohort polarization hypotheses, which propose that attitudes ...

The value of a park in crises: Quantifying the health and wellbeing benefits of green spaces using exogenous variations in use values

Most people consider parks important for their quality of life, yet systematic causal evidence is missing. We exploit exogenous variations in their use values to estimate causal effects. Using a representative household panel with precise geographical coordinates of households linked to satellite images of green spaces with a nationwide coverage, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences design, ...

The Rollercoaster of Subjective Well-Being in Times of Multiple Crises: Evidence of Five Waves of Bi-Annual Panel Data of FReDA Survey

In times of polycrisis, such as COVID-19, the Russian war against Ukraine, and inflation, fear and uncertainties challenge many people. While the impact of the pandemic on subjective well-being was thoroughly studied, the medium-term effects and impacts of more recent crises are still to be observed. Based on the first five waves of the bi-annual (and once tri-annual) large-scale panel FReDA, we show ...