Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Marriage and Earnings: Why Do Married Men Earn More than Single Men?

This article investigates how marriage affects the wages of men in Germany. A variety of reasons have been proposed for why married men earn higher wages than single men; however, previous tests of the leading explanations have been inconclusive. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, it is found that married men enjoy a wage premium even after controlling for self-selection into marriage. ...

Parenthood and Life Satisfaction: Why Don't Children Make People Happy?

Previous research on the association between parenthood and life satisfaction has shown that parents of minor children are not more satisfied with their lives than childless people. This study addressed the question of why children do not enhance their parents' life satisfaction. A major objective of this study was to determine whether and to what extent the costs of raising children act as suppressors ...

The Work and Wishes of Fathers: Actual and Preferred Work Hours among German Fathers

We examine the connection between fatherhood and employment hours using 30 years of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP 1985–2014). By inspecting how actual hours, preferred hours, and the correspondence between actual and preferred hours change during fatherhood, we clarify the interplay between fathers’ preferences and the labour market structures they encounter. We find that men born ...

Why does unemployment lead to divorce? Male-breadwinner norms and divorce risk in 30 countries

It is well known that unemployment and financial strain put pressure on relationships and increase the risk of divorce or separation. This applies to men's unemployment in particular , and earlier research has suggested that gender norms about employment in marriage might be relevant to explain why his job loss spurs more marital conflict than hers. While theoretically intuitive, most of the available ...

Family Gap Structures in Western Nations

A Minimum Wage for Germany - What Should We Expect?

The Timing of Employment Breaks: How Does It Affect Pension Benefits? - Empirical Evidence from Germany

An Inquiry into the Theory, Causes and Consequences of Monitoring Indicators of Health and Safety at Work

This paper engages in an interdisciplinary survey of the current state of knowledge related to the theory, determinants and consequences of occupational safety and health (OSH). First, it synthesizes the available theoretical frameworks used by economists and psychologists to understand the issues related to the optimal provision of OSH in the labour market. Second, it reviews the academic literature ...

Bitterness in life and attitudes towards immigration

Worries about immigration have played a major role in the rise of extremist parties across Europe, the Brexit referendum, and Trump's presidential campaign. We show that bitter people who feel they have not gotten what they deserve in life worry more about immigration. This relationship holds for respondents with different levels of skills, job security, concerns about crime, the general economic ...

Income, Working Hours, and Happiness

In empirical analyses, the effect of income on happiness tends to be underestimated by ignoring the fact that income has to be earned. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, our analysis confirms this tendency. For men, the underestimation amounts to 25%.