Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

How Behavior and Motivation Mediate the Impact of School Absences on Achievement

This study investigates the mediating role of psychosocial factors, including behaviors and motivations, in the association between school absences and academic achievement. Using comprehensive longitudinal data from England, linking National Pupil Database (NPD) school register data with Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) survey data (N=7,204), the analysis explores the impact of absences at ages 12/13 ...

The Minimum Wage in Germany: Institutional Setting and a Systematic Review of Key Findings

The introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany in 2015 aimed at improving the welfare of low-wage workers but was also accompanied by concerns about distortions in Europe’s largest economy. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of results from the evaluation of the German minimum wage by compiling recent descriptive evidence and a systematic literature review on causal effects through ...

Participation in German courses and language skills

Is the First Language a Resource, an Obstacle, or Irrelevant for Language Minority Students’ Education?

Successful integration into the education system is of major importance for the future prospects of immigrants and their children as well as for the social cohesion and viability of the receiving societies. Language is generally viewed as an important aspect of this integration. Whereas there is widespread agreement that the language of the residence country (L2) is crucial for students’ educational ...

How Do Immigrant-Origin and Native Voters Consume Political News Media During a National Election Campaign?

This is the first quantitative empirical contribution to examine how immigrant-origin voters use different types of political news media in the course of an election campaign. As this group of voters often has a lower average turnout than natives, it is surprising that we know little about its media usage behaviour. Using novel data from the IMGES II survey conducted during the 2021 German national ...

Detecting Corruption: Evidence from a World Bank project in Kenya

Corruption is a major problem in development aid, in part because areas with the greatest need for development assistance often have weak governance. In these environments, traditional anti-fraud measures such as audits or criminal enforcement are limited in their effectiveness. Moreover, aid organizations face incentives to downplay bad outcomes for fear of alienating donors, which has led to the ...

Settlement intentions of Ukrainian refugees in Germany: Adhering to social status back home or restarting again abroad?

Background: The choice between permanent settlement and temporary migration has garnered increased attention in international migration studies, yet the decisions of refugees remain underexplored. Objective: Building on the existing literature on return migration among voluntary migrants, this paper investigates the importance of socio-psychological and economic-skills contexts in refugees’ home and ...

Child sick care-related absence from work and the consequences on parents' income

This study investigates the impact of child-related absence from work on the income of working mothers and fathers, addressing a significant research gap in sociology and labour economics. While previous research has established that gender and parenthood significantly influence income levels, the consequences of caring for a sick child-a common and unpredictable responsibility-remain inadequately ...

Earnings expectations of "first-in family" university students and their role for major choice

How do students’ earnings expectations differ by being the first in their family to attend university (FiF) and how do they affect field of study choice? We leverage unique survey and administrative data to document sizable gaps in expected earnings between FiF and non-FiF students. Our data can explain two-thirds of this gap, with the largest share attributable to field of study choice. We show that ...

How did you find your job? Effects of the job search channels on labour market outcomes in Germany

We study the effect of finding a job through one's social contact on starting wages. Using combined SOEP-INKAR data for Germany and propensity score analysis - both matching and weighting - we document that referral hiring is associated with a wage penalty of 10%. This penalty is stable over time. Separating by the type of the social contact, we find that referrals from former colleagues are associated ...