Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Women’s Labour Force Exit: the Role of her Partner’s Socio-Economic Position

Using the longitudinal data of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) we studied the effect of both partners’ education and occupational status on womens likelihood to exit the labour market and to become a housewife. The event-history analyses show that women partnered with high status men were more likely to exit the labour force than women with lower status partners. Yet, stronger than the effects of the ...

Refinancing Europe's higher education through deferred and income-contingent fees: An empirical assessment using Belgian, German and UK data

The arguments for refinancing the European Union's (EU) higher education via higher tuition fees largely rest on preserving the profitability of the educational investment and offering deferred and income-contingent payments. Using income survey datasets on Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) we first estimate how graduates' private return on educational investment is likely to be ...

Within-Group Earnings Inequality in Cross-National Perspective

In this research I assess within-group inequality—earnings inequality occurring among otherwise similar individuals based on observed characteristics—in a cross-national comparative perspective. While scholarly interest in the within-group portion of inequality has grown over the past 25 years, virtually all studies focus on the US case. The current research shifts focus by assessing within-group inequality ...

Well-Being in Germany: What Explains the Regional Variation?

This paper examines regional differences in subjective well-being (SWB) in Germany. Inferential statistics indicate a diminishing but still significant gap between East andWest Germany, but also differing levels of SWB within both parts of Germany. The observed regional pattern of life satisfaction reflects macroeconomic fundamentals, where labour market conditions play a dominant role. Differing levels ...

The Labor Market, Poverty and Social Policy in the Czech and Slovak Republics, 1990-1992: Data and Analyses

Earnings Disparities and Income Inequality in CEE Countries: An Analysis of Development and Relationships

The potential in survey data for the study of simultaneous changes in earnings disparities, inequality of household income, and the connections between them has thus far been underexploited. This paper presents various data on four Central and East European (CEE countries and, for the sake of comparison, partially on Austria and Germany. It uses data from multiple sources. Microdata come from the Luxembourg ...

Social conditions for human happiness: A review of research

Empirical research on happiness took off in the 1970s and accelerated after the emergence of positive psychology by 2000. Today this has resulted in some 23,000 research findings. In this article, I take stock of the findings on social conditions for happiness and distinguish between conditions at the macro level of society, the meso level of organisations and the micro level of individual conditions. ...

Outcomes of unemployment episodes during early career for mismatched workers in the United Kingdom and Germany and the mediating effects of education and institutions

Our research challenges the traditional view that unemployment is an unequivocal negative event in working life. We argue that depending on workers’ educational attainment and on national-specific institutional settings unemployment might have different implications on young workers who begin their employment careers in low occupational positions. The strongly skill-based and rigid labour market in ...

The Determinants of Family Reunification among German Guest-Workers

Adaptation, anticipation and social interaction in happiness: An integrated error-correction approach

Adaptation, anticipation and social-reference effects on happiness are strongly interrelated phenomena. However, in the existing empirical literature these phenomena are mainly studied in isolation from each other. Therefore, using SOEP panel data for the years 1984–2007, this study offers an integrated investigation of the implications of these three phenomena for the dynamics of individual life satisfaction. ...