Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Single-Mother Families in Eight Countries: Economic Status and Social Policy

Spousal Similarity in Life Satisfaction Before and After Divorce

Previous research has explored possible origins of individual differences in subjective well-being, focusing largely on stable, internal characteristics of traits as predictors of life satisfaction (Diener & Lucas, 1999). Although past work has demonstrated that life satisfaction is largely stable over the life span, other evidence has also demonstrated the lasting impact of life events. In this ...

How have employment transitions for older workers in Germany and the UK changed?

Extending working life is an objective for many nations. However, the UK government has recently reported only modest improvement “compared to many nations”. A comparison of European, Labour Force Surveys show that Germany has reversed early retirement much faster than the UK since 2003. This was not forecast by previous researchers. In particular, Ebbinghaus’ influential cross-national analysis of ...

Household Structure and Measurement of Poverty

The Relationship Between Homeownership and Life Satisfaction in Germany

The article investigates the relationship between homeownership and life satisfaction in Germany, using German Socio-Economic Panel Study data from 1992 to 2009. The data not only allow controlling for a wide range of variables, but also tackle various measurement problems of previous studies. Ordered logit models support a positive relationship between homeownership and life satisfaction. In addition, ...

Parental investment and the intergenerational transmission of economic preferences and attitudes

We study empirically whether there is scope for parents to shape the economic preferences and attitudes of their children through purposeful investments. We exploit information on the risk and trust attitudes of parents and their children, as well as rich information about parental efforts in the upbringing of their children from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Our results show that parents ...

A disadvantaged childhood matters more if local unemployment is high

Using multilevel models on the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study this paper shows that disadvantaged young adults (16‐35 years old) are more affected by the business cycle than their similarly educated counterparts from more advantaged backgrounds. We propose that a disadvantaged background lowers desirability on the labour market, which matters more to employers as the labour market tightens. When ...

Crowding Out of Disadvantaged Young Adults in Germany: Background Matters Depending on Local Labour Market

Research on socio-economic mobility focuses on how background affects later labour market outcomes. Growing up in a disadvantaged household does not always lead to the same outcomes however, and the extent to which this matters depends on the local labour market. Using multilevel models on the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, this article shows that disadvantaged young adults (16–35 years old) are ...

Labour Responses to Taxes and Benefits in Germany

German Job Mobility and Wages