Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Upward and downward social mobility probabilities have converged for men and women

This study investigates professional social mobility, i.e., changes in one’s occupational status compared to that of their parents. It uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (Sozio-oekonomisches Panel, SOEP) on middle-aged, western Germans who were born between 1939 and 1971. On average, social status relative to parents has increased (absolute social mobility). However, looking at how positions ...

Integrating Randomized Controlled Field Trials into (Existing) Panel Surveys : The "Mentoring of Refugees" Study

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are the gold standard in research design for studying causal relationships. In migration studies, they can, for instance, help studying the effects of government and non-government programs on migrant integration. However, RCTs are challenging and cost-intensive to conduct. In this brief, we outline a research design that integrates RCTs into existing panel surveys ...

Risk takers follow in parents' footsteps

Health Measurement and Health Inequality Over the Life Course: A Comparison of Self-rated Health, SF-12, and Grip Strength

The cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis predicts education differences in health to increase with age. All previous tests of this hypothesis were based on self-reported health measures. Recent research has suggested that self-reported health measures may not adequately capture differences in key analytical constructs, including education, age, cohort, and gender. In this study, I tested the cumulative ...

Maternal Education, Divorce, and Changes in Economic Resources: Evidence from Germany

This study investigated the effects of divorce on educational gaps in mothers’ economic resources. The results shed new light on two opposing theoretical positions that have informed research on social inequality in the consequences of divorce. Recent extensions of the “diverging destinies” perspective posit that divorce is more consequential among the disadvantaged than among the privileged. The notion ...

Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative (Dis)Advantage and Its Rising Importance in Germany

Research from the United States has supported two hypotheses. First, educational gaps in health widen with age—the cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis. Second, this relationship has intensified across cohorts—the rising importance hypothesis. In this article, we used 23 waves of panel data (Socio-Economic Panel Study, 1992–2014) to examine both hypotheses in the German context. We considered individual ...

Do Immigrants Suffer More from Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-Being in Germany

This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal ...

Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Multiple-Outcome Comparison of Former Spouses

This study examined gender differences in the consequences of divorce for multiple measures of psychological, economic, and domestic well-being. I used household panel data from the German SOEP, retaining the link between initially married couples (N = 755) to compare both spouses over a period of up to four years before and after divorce. Findings showed that men were more vulnerable to short-term ...

Diverging Trends in Satisfaction With Housework: Declines in Women, Increases in Men

Objective This study provides the first assessment of changes in women's and men's satisfaction with housework. Background The gender gap in housework time has narrowed, but it remains unknown how subjective evaluations of housework have changed across the “gender revolution” in market and domestic spheres. Method This study used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. A probability ...

How Far Do Children Move? Spatial Distances After Leaving the Parental Home

Little is known about how far young adults move when they leave their parental home initially. We addressed this question using data from ten waves (2000 – 2009) of the German Socioeconomic Panel Study on spatial distances calculated by the geo-coordinates of residential moves (N = 1,425). Linear regression models predicted young adults' moving distance by factors at the individual, family, household, ...