Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Family Policies and Single Parent Poverty in 18 OECD Countries, 1978-2008

In this study, we examined to what extent family policies differently affect poverty among single-parent households and two-parent households. We distinguished between reconciliation policies (tested with parental leave and the proportion of unpaid leave) and financial support policies (tested with family allowances). We used data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database, covering 514,019 households ...

The Relation between Religiosity and Muslims' Social Integration: A Two-Wave Study of Recent Immigrants in Three European Countries

Does their degree of religiosity affect how successfully recent Muslim migrants integrate socially into the host society in terms of their social contacts with the majority population and their ethno-religious group? And/or do these co-ethnic and interethnic social contacts affect the religiosity of Muslim migrants over time? On the basis of a two-wave study among recent migrants in Germany, the Netherlands ...

Weighting adjustments in the presence of non-coverage due to residential mobility in the German Microcensus-Panel

Beyond the Employment Agency: The Effect of Social Capital on the Duration of Unemployment

This paper relates an individual’s social capital and the length of unemployment spells of the very same individual. For this purpose, we analyze several facets of an agent’s social activities as determinants of her social capital. Social activities lead to social interactions within organizational settings, which build up social capital at the group level. Via social interactions an exchange of knowledge ...

Does Education Affect Attitudes Towards Immigration? Evidence from Germany

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and exploiting the staggered implementation of a compulsory schooling reform in West Germany, this article finds that an additional year of schooling lowers the probability of being very concerned about immigration to Germany by around six percentage points (20 percent). Furthermore, our findings imply significant spillovers from maternal education to ...

Early Career Experiences and Later Career Success: An International Comparison

Early Career Experiences and Later Career Outcomes: Comparing the United States, France, and Germany

This paper explores the links between individuals' early career experiences and their labor market outcomes 5 to 20 years later using data from France, (western) Germany, and the United States. Relative to most of the literature, we consider a large set of measures of men's early career experiences and later career outcomes. Our results differ significantly across countries. Labor market ...

Children’s Sex and the Happiness of Parents

Demographers are interested in sex preferences for children because they can skew sex ratios and influence population-level fertility, parenting behavior, and family outcomes. Based on parity progression ratios, in most European countries, there are no sex preferences for a first child, but a strong preference for mixed-sex children. We hypothesize that mixed-sex preferences also influence parental ...

Parental Well-being Surrounding First Birth as a Determinant of Further Parity Progression

A major component driving cross-country fertility differences in the developed world is differences in the probability of having additional children among those who have one. Why do people stop at having only one child? We hypothesize that the experience of the transition to parenthood is an important determinant of further fertility. Analyzing longitudinal data from Germany, we find that the experience ...

Is There a Fatherhood Wage Premium? A Cautionary Tale from Modified Male-Breadwinner Societies

The transition to parenthood deepens economic inequalities between women and men. In labour markets, motherhood leads to substantial wage penalties for women, whereas the wage progression of men marches on come fatherhood. Yet relatively little evidence exists on whether fatherhood grants men a wage premium or superior wages spur the transition to fatherhood instead. Also, most longitudinal studies ...