Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Smoking and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Germany

In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the effect on cigarette consumption of macro-economic conditions in the form of regional unemployment rates. The results from our panel data models, several of which control for selection bias, indicate that the propensity to become a smoker increases significantly during an economic downturn, with an approximately 0.7 percentage ...

Socioeconomic status, parenting and conscientiousness: the unequal development of children's focus

Conscientiousness is one of the most relevant personality traits for success across the life course. According to recent studies, facets of Conscientiousness have different relevance in different contexts. One of these facets, Focus, has proved to be important in the context of learning and education, whereas the facet Orderliness has not. For this reason the development of specific facets has become ...

Social origin, conscientiousness, and school grades: Does early socialization of the characteristics orderliness and focus contribute to the reproduction of social inequality?

Among a child's skills and competencies, conscientiousness has been shown to be one of the most important predictors of school performance and later academic achievement. We refer this insight to the social reproduction of social inequality: Is socialization of personality characteristics in the parental home a significant mechanism that contributes to a child's life chances? Using school ...

Poverty and Child Behavioral Problems: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Parental Well-Being

The detrimental impact of poverty on child behavioral problems is well-established, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are less well-known. Using data from the Families in Germany Study on parents and their children at ages 9–10 (middle childhood), this study extends previous research by examining whether or not and to what extent different parenting styles and parents’ subjective well-being ...

Innovation, Employment, and Firm Performance in the German Service Sektor

The Working Hours of Immigrants in Germany: Temporary versus Permanent

Migration is often viewed as an investment decision. Temporary migrants can be expected to invest less in accumulating human capital specific to the host country. Instead, they work more hours in order to accumulate savings and invest in financial capital that can be transferred back to their country of origin upon return. In this paper, using German panel data, we explore how temporary migrants differ ...

International migration, ethnicity, and economic inequality

Employment Protection Reforms, Employment and the Incidence of Temporary Jobs in Europe: 1995-2001

The Structure of the Permanent Job Wage Premium: Evidence from Europe

Using longitudinal data on individuals from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for thirteen countries during 1995-2001, I investigate the wage premium for permanent jobs relative to temporary jobs. The countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. I find that among men the wage premium ...

Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being