Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Educational Attainment and Returns to Education in Germany - An Analysis by Subject of Degree, Gender and Region

Gender Effects as Macro-Level Effects: Germany and the United States 1991-1997

My research examines within-nation differences as well as cross-national differences in socially stratified outcomes, specifically the distribution of household incomes. I build on the considerable empirical evidence suggesting that group memberships are important factors in shaping one's life course and in determining the level of social inequality. I examine seven years of longitudinal data ...

Two Approaches to Understanding Control of Voluntary and Involuntary Job Shifts among Germans and Foreigners from 1991 to 1996

German Active Labor Market Policies: The Use of Job Creation and Training Programs Following Unification

The Development and Happiness of Very Young Children

The paper demonstrates how Sen’s (1985) alternative approach to welfare economics can be used to shed light on the wellbeing of very young children. More specifically, we estimate versions of the three key relations from his framework using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 2012) Survey. Our primary models provide evidence that skills are related to involvement in cognate activities ...

Are Immigrants Paid Less for Education?

This paper is on measuring the gap in returns to education between foreign-born and native workers in France, Germany, and Austria and investigates the extent to which this gap can be explained by a mis-match between the actual and the years of schooling typical for a given occupation. The return to usual years of schooling across different occupations is found to be higher than that for actual years ...

What is Behind Native-Immigrant Social Income Gaps?

Immigration, Social Networks and Occupational Mismatch

In this study we investigate the link between the job search channels that workers use to find employment and the probability of occupational mismatch in the new job. Our specific focus is on differences between native and immigrant workers. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) over the period 2000-2014. First, we document that referral hiring via social networks is the most frequent ...

Immigration, social networks and occupational mismatch

In this study we investigate the link between the job search channels used to find employment and the probability of occupational mismatch. Our specific focus is on differences between natives and immigrants. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 2000–2014). First, we document that referral hiring is the most frequent single channel of generating jobs in Germany; in relative terms ...

Trust, risk and time preferences: evidence from survey data

The paper shows that time preferences and risk preferences are key covariates of self-reported trust. They both predict negatively a measure of generalized trust; however, risk aversion is positively correlated with an index of particularized trusting behaviour (which refers to the circle of known people).