Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Heresy or enlightenment? The well-being age U-shape effect is flat

The otherwise seemingly robust age U-shape effect on life satisfaction in pooled OLS regressions is refuted with the German SOEP when controlling for panel fixed effects and respondent experience in the panel. Interviewer characteristics also impact significantly on life satisfaction responses.

Re-employment Expectations and the Eye of Providence

Using a nationally representative panel dataset, this study investigates the extent and impact of systematic misconceptions of the currently unemployed concerning their statistical re-employment probability, affecting their labor market behavior in a sub-optimal way. Specifically, people with unemployment experience of 3 to 5 years significantly underestimate their objective re-employment probabilities ...

Re-employment expectations and realisations: Prediction errors and behavioural responses

Using a nationally representative panel dataset, this study investigates the extent and impact of systematic misconceptions that the currently unemployed have about their prospect of re-employment. Such biased expectations are of interest because of their capacity to drive sub-optimal labour market behaviour. Specifically, people with unemployment experience of three to five years significantly underestimate ...

Beyond GDP and Back: What is the Value-Added by Additional Components of Welfare Measurement?

Recently, building on the highly polarizing Stiglitz report, a growing literature suggests that statistical offices and applied researchers explore other aspects of human welfare apart from material well-being, such as job security, crime, health, environmental factors and subjective perceptions. To explore the additional information of these indicators, we analyze data on the macro level from the ...

Intergenerational Mobility, Redistribution and the Long Term Dynamics of Income Inequality or: Think Of the Children, Too! (Diplomarbeit)

Young and at risk? Consequences of job insecurity for mental health and satisfaction among labor market entrants with different levels of education

Young workers are often temporarily employed and thus likely to experience job insecurity. This study investigates associations of objective job insecurity (i.e., temporary employment) and subjectively perceived job insecurity with mental health, job satisfaction and life satisfaction among young workers, testing the moderating role of education. The longitudinal analysis based on 1522 labor market ...

Heritability of time preference: Evidence from German twin data

Intergenerational correlations of time preference are well documented. However, there is still limited empirical evidence about the role of genetics in this transmission process. In our paper, we use data on roughly 3,000 twins from the German TwinLife project to estimate the heritability of time preference. We rely on an experimentally validated survey measure of temporal discounting, namely, self-assessed ...

The Standard Portfolio Choice Problem in Germany

We study an investment experiment with a representative sample of German households. Respondents invest in a safe asset and a risky asset whose return is tied to the German stock market. Experimental investments correlate with beliefs about stock market returns and exhibit desirable external validity at least in one respect: they predict real-life stock market participation. But many households are ...

Peer Groups, Employment Status and Mental Well-being among Older Adults in Ireland

Research has shown that employment status, such as being unemployed or retired, can be related to well-being. In addition, the direction and size of these relationships can be influenced by the employment status of one’s peer group. For example, it has been shown that the well-being of the unemployed tends to be higher for those living in high-unemployment areas compared to the unemployed living in ...

Comparing the Reliability and Validity of Global Self-Report Measures of Subjective Well-Being With Experiential Day Reconstruction Measures

Self-report measures of global well-being are thought to reflect the overall quality of people’s lives. However, several scholars have argued that people rely on heuristics, such as current mood, when reporting their global well-being. Experiential well-being measures, such as the day reconstruction method (DRM), have been proposed as an alternative technique to obtain a potentially more accurate assessment ...