Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Life Satisfaction, Household Income and Personality Traits

We show that personality traits mediate the effect of income on Life Satisfaction. The effect is strong in the case of Neuroticism, which measures the sensitivity to threat and punishment, in both the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socioeconomic Panel. Neuroticism increases the usually observed concavity of the relationship: Individuals with higher Neuroticism score enjoy income more ...

Life Satisfaction, Income and Personality

We use personality traits to better understand the relationship between income and life satisfaction. Personality traits mediate the effect of income on life satisfaction. The effect of neuroticism, which measures sensitivity to threat and punishment, is strong in both the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socioeconomic Panel. Neuroticism increases the usually observed concavity of the ...

What Matters in the Transition from School to Vocational Training in Germany. Educational Credentials, Cognitive Abilities or Personality?

The German multi-tiered school system functions as an institutional mechanism which prevents students from certain social class backgrounds from fulfilling their individual learning potential. Their cognitive abilities are not transformed into corresponding school performances and credentials. Against this backdrop, we ask whether the transition from school to vocational training may enable young people ...

The effects of pension changes on age of first benefit receipt: Regression discontinuity evidence from repatriated ethnic Germans

To estimate the effects of large cuts in pensions on the age of first benefit receipt, we exploit two natural experiments in which such cuts affect a group of repatriated ethnic German workers. The pensions were cut by about 12%, yet, according to our regression discontinuity estimates using administrative pension data, there was no significant delay in the age of first pension receipt. Based on additional ...

Persistence of the School Entry Age Effect in a System of Flexible Tracking

The Effects of Incomplete Employee Wage Information: A Cross-Country Analysis

The Gender Pay Gap Across Countries: A Human Capital Approach

The gender wage gap varies across countries. For example, among OECD nations women in Australia, Belgium, Italy and Sweden earn 80% as much as males, whereas in Austria, Canada and Japan women earn about 60%. Current studies examining cross-country differences focus on the impact of labor market institutions such as minimum wage laws and nationwide collective bargaining. However, these studies neglect ...

Housing and health in Germany

Estimating a Life Cycle Model with Unemployment and Human Capital Depreciation

Everyone Happy - Living Standards in Germany 25 Years after Reunification

Already a quarter of a century since the fall of the wall and the gap in living standards between eastern and western Germany is still not fully closed. Admittedly this could not realistically have been expected. Despite the increase in life satisfaction in eastern Germany, the east- west divide prevails. Evidence of this can be found in the latest data from the long-term Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) ...