Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Homeownership, saving and financial wealth: a comparative and longitudinal analysis

AbstractThe finding that homeowners own more non-housing wealth than tenants is well known. We examine whether the higher financial wealth of owners can be partly explained with increases in saving when becoming a homeowner in two distinct institutional contexts. Using longitudinal data for the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel Study), we find that homeowners save ...

Parenthood, Gender, and Personal Wealth

This study examines the association between parenthood and the growth of personal wealth of women and men over time. We argue that parenthood creates unique restrictions and opportunity structures for mothers and fathers in terms of personal wealth accumulation. Using rich data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012; N = 28,650 individuals), we apply random-effects growth curve ...

Falling Out of Love and Down the Housing Ladder: A Longitudinal Analysis of Marital Separation and Home Ownership

We analyse the interdependence between marital separation and home ownership. Past research showed that separations reduce the likelihood of owning a home. We add to this literature by allowing partners to be aware of the risk of separation in our empirical analysis. We analyse (i) residential moves to owned and rented dwellings and (ii) the selection processes between ownership and separation. We ...

Solidarity with EU Countries in Crisis: Results of a 2015 Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Survey

In response to the European sovereign debt and currency crisis, the EU has begun to implement measures toward fiscal solidarity at least for the euro area. Survey data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study show that just under half of all adults in Germany generally support providing assistance to EU countries experiencing financial difficulties. Almost one in three respondents also advocate the ...

Occupation, Prestige, and Voluntary Work in Retirement: Empirical Evidence from Germany

The paper examines the extent to which the prestige value of a retiree’s former occupation increases the likelihood that they will make a transition into volunteering after retirement. Following social production function theory, we assume that when a person retires, the prestige value attached to their former occupation fades. The fact that volunteering has the character of a collective good provides ...

The long shadow of occupation: Volunteering in retirement

This article examines the extent to which the former occupation of an employee impacts the likelihood that he or she will decide to volunteer upon retirement. Following social production function theory, we assume that beginning with retirement, the status value attached to their former occupation fades. Because volunteering has the character of a collective good, it provides an opportunity to gain ...

Educational Inequality and the Returns to Skills

Research and policy discussion about the diverging fortunes of children from advantaged and disadvantaged households have focused on the skill disparities between these children – how they might arise and how they might be remediated. Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health reveals another important mechanism in the determinants of educational attainment – differential ...

The Patterns of Convergence of Eastern German Labor Markets to Western Standards Post-Unification

Returns to education: not until 2005 did East German men do as well as Westeners, but Eastern women did better

Testing Logit Models in Practice

The aim of the paper is to provide the practioner with easily implementable procedures, both numerical and graphical, to test the specification of the dichotomous, linear-in-coefficents logit model. We discuss the performance of these asymptotic methods in small samples on the basis of Monte-Carlo simulations and apply them to a cross-section study of female labour supply in West Germany.