Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Causes of Happiness and Misery

The Marginal Utility of Income

Does Relative Income Matter? Are the Critics Right?

Do other peoples’ incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the U.S., Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has been constant for many decades? The answer to both questions is ‘Yes’. We provide 4 main pieces of evidence. 1) In the U.S. General Survey (repeated samples since 1972) comparator income ...

The dynamics of income poverty

Leaving home in Europe: The role of parents' and children's income

Demand for Supplemental Health Insurance in Germany – Improving Quality of Care and Closing Coverage Gaps

We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to analyze determinants of the demand for sup-plemental health insurance covering hospital and dental in Germany. The GSOP dataset provides doctor diagnosed indicators of the individual’s health state, risk attitude, and demand for medical services and insurance purchases in other lines of insurance as well as rich demographical and socio-economical information. ...

Demand and Selection Effects in Supplemental Health Insurance in Germany

This paper empirically assesses the selection effects and determinants of the demand for supple-mental health insurance that covers hospital and dental benefits in Germany. Our representative dataset provides doctor-diagnosed indicators of the individual’s health status, risk attitude, demand for medical services and insurance purchases in other lines of insurance as well as rich demographic and socioeconomic ...

The Polarization of Preferences and the Provision of Public Goods: the Case of Germany (Master thesis)

Essays in Empirical Development and Education Economics (Dissertation)

The fourth essay (co-authored by Marten von Werder) analyzes the causal effects of tracking, the practice of grouping students by ability, on educational outcomes and the intergenerational transmission of education. While proponents of tracking argue that the practice increases efficiency in educational production, opponents point out that tracking potentially aggravates initial differences between ...

Tracking and the Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Proponents of tracking argue that the creation of more homogeneous classes increases effciency while opponents point out that tracking aggravates initial differences between students. We estimate the effects on the intergenerational transmission of education of a reform that delayed tracking by two years in one of Germany's federal states. While the reform had no effect on educational outcomes ...