Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

A Multilevel Analysis of Child Care and Women's Fertility Decisions in West Germany

A Field Study of Chinese Migrant Workers' Attitudes toward Risks, Strategic Uncertainty, and Competitiveness

Using a field experiment in China, we study whether migration status is correlated with attitudes toward risk, ambiguity, and competitiveness. Our subjects include migrants and non-migrants. We find that, migrants exhibit no differences from non-migrants in risk and ambiguity preferences elicited using pairs of lotteries ; however, migrants are significantly more likely to enter competition in the ...

The contribution of Women's Employment and Earnings to Household Income Inequality: A Cross-Country Analysis

Aggregate data shows an inverse relationship between female employment and income inequality. This paper investigates this relationship using micro-data for seventeen OECD countries. In all countries, female earnings exert an equalising force on the distribution of income in spite of large employment gaps between high and low educated women. There are marked similarities across countries; even in Nordic ...

Women´s Employment and Household Income Inequality

Wage, Labour Mobility and Working Time Effects of Profit Sharing

Are Profit Shares and Wages Substitute or Complementary Forms of Compensation?

Educational Choice and Risk Aversion: How Important Is Structural vs. Individual Risk Aversion?

According to sociological theories on educational choice, risk aversion is the main driving force for class-specific educational decisions. Families from upper social classes have to opt for the academically most demanding, long-lasting courses to avoid an intergenerational status loss. Families from lower social classes by contrast, tend instead to opt for shorter tracks to reduce the risk of failing ...

Assimilation over the Life Course? The Career Mobility of Second-Generation Turkish Men in Germany

Studies of second-generation migrant assimilation have thus far focused on intergenerational mobility. However, career-mobility processes can also contribute to ethnic assimilation over the course of migrants’ careers. This study analyzes second-generation Turkish men’s labor-market and income mobility over the course of their early careers relative to those of autochthonous Germans. The results indicate ...

Do second-generation Turkish migrants in Germany assimilate into the middle class?

The understanding of career paths of migrants is crucial for gaining deeper insights into assimilation processes. However, previous studies in Germany have paid little attention to middle-class assimilation and the career sequences of the second generation of migrants. This paper focuses on early employment career patterns of the children of guest workers, both men and women and especially those of ...

A Risk Augmented Mincer Earnings Equation? Taking Stock

We survey the literature on the Risk Augmented Mincer equation that seeks to estimate the compensation for uncertainty in the future wage to be earned after completing an education. There is wide empirical support for the predicted positive effect of wage variance and the negative effect of wage skew. We discuss robustness of the findings across specifications, potential bias from unobserved heterogeneity ...