Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Analyzing Nonresponse in Longitudinal Surveys Using Bayesian Additive Regression Trees: A Nonparametric Event History Analysis

Increasing nonresponse rates is a pressing issue for many longitudinal panel studies. Respondents frequently either refuse participation in single survey waves (temporary dropout) or discontinue participation altogether (permanent dropout). Contemporary statistical methods that are used to elucidate predictors of survey nonresponse are typically limited to small variable sets and ignore complex interaction ...

Bringing Together Community Organizations and Social Science Research: the “Mentoring of Refugees” Project

The Project “Mentoring of Refugees” (MORE) implements a randomized controlled trial (RCT) into an existing survey on refugees in Germany. The treatment is the participation in a mentoring relationship with a local resident, which is organized by a non-profit organization. The project aims at analyzing whether mentoring programs between refugees and local residents impact refugees’ integration trajectories. ...

Diversity in Family Life Course Patterns and Intra-Cohort Wealth Disparities in Late Working Age

Against the backdrop of soaring wealth inequalities in older age, this research addresses the relationship between increasingly diverse family life courses and widening wealth differences between individuals as they age. We holistically examined how childbearing and marital histories matter for West German baby boomer cohorts’ personal wealth at ages 51 to 59. We proposed that wealth penalties associated ...

Coronavirus and Care: How the Coronavirus Crisis Affected Fathers’ Involvement in Germany

Background: Some have hypothesized that the coronavirus crisis may result in a retraditionalization of behaviour. This paper examines this hypothesis by analyzing how the time fathers and mothers spent with their children changed during the first lockdown in the case of Germany. Methods: Data for this investigation come from the German Socio-Economic Panel. The outcome variable is the time spent on ...

Make Sure the Kids are OK: Indirect Effects of Ground-Level Ozone on Well-Being

This paper uses a panel of German individuals and highly granular pollution data to test if air pollution affects adults’ well-being indirectly through the health of their children. Results show that ozone decreases the well-being of individuals with children while not affecting persons without kids. We confirm the same effect for fine particulate matter and sulfur dioxide. Concerning the mechanism, ...

Interdependencies in Mothers’ and Daughters’ Work-Family Life Course Trajectories: Similar but Different?

Women’s life courses underwent substantial changes in the family and work domains in the second half of the twentieth century. The associated fundamental changes in opportunity structures and values challenged the importance of families of origin for individual life courses, but two research strands suggest enduring within-family reproduction of women’s family behavior and work outcomes. We revisit ...

Psychological distress among refugees in Germany: a cross-sectional analysis of individual and contextual risk factors and potential consequences for integration using a nationally representative survey

Objectives: Responding to the mental health needs of refugees remains a pressing challenge worldwide. We estimated the prevalence of psychological distress in a large refugee population in Germany and assessed its association with host country factors amenable to policy intervention and integration indicators. Design: A cross-sectional and population-based secondary analysis of the 2017 wave of the ...

Gender and Changes in Household Wealth after the Dissolution of Marriage and Cohabitation in Germany

Objective: To document how changes in household wealth following the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation differ by gender in Germany. Background; Marital property regimes usually prescribe that both partners receive a share of the couple's wealth following a divorce. The dissolution of cohabiting unions is not governed by marital property regimes in most countries, including Germany. Because ...

Unemployment and Housework in Couples: Task-Specific Differences and Dynamics Over Time

Objective: The authors tested competing hypotheses about the effects of unemployment on couples' division of housework and total household production. Background: Gender-neutral and gender-based theories make opposing predictions on the reactions of couples. Few previous studies have tested these predictions using longitudinal data. This study extends research by examining how the effects of unemployment ...

Gert G. Wagner Recommends "Homo Ignorans: Deliberately Choosing Not to Know" by Ralph Hertwig and Christoph Engel