Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Effects of Education on Health: An Intergenerational Perspective

This paper presents evidence of substantial causal effects of parental education on children's health behaviours and long-term health. We study intergenerational effects of a compulsory schooling increase in Germany after World War II, which was implemented across federal states at different points in time. Maternal schooling reduces children's smoking and overweight in adolescence. The effects ...

Life Expectancy and Parental Education

This study analyses the relationship between life expectancy and parental education. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and survival analysis models, we show that maternal education is related to children’s life expectancy – even after controlling for children’sown level of education. This applies equally to daughters and sons as well as to children’s further life expectancies ...

Paid Parental Leave and Child Development: Evidence from the 2007 German Parental Benefit Reform and Administrative Data

This paper examines the effects of a substantial change in publicly funded paid parental leave in Germany on child development and socio-economic development gaps. For children born before January 1, 2007, parental leave benefits were means-tested and paid for up to 24 months after childbirth. For children born thereafter, parental leave benefits were earnings-related and only paid for up to 14 months. ...

Bringing Home the Money: Xenophobia and Remittances - The Case of Germany

Gender, Migration, Remittances: Evidence from Germany

Remittances and Gender: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence

In this paper, we focus on network- and gender-specific determinants of remittances, which are often explained theoretically by way of intra-family contracts. We develop a basic formal concept that includes aspects of the transnational network and derive hypotheses from it. For our empirical investigation, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the years 2001-2006. Our findings ...

Gender and Remittances: Evidence from Germany

This study focuses on gender-specific determinants of remittances in Germany. The conceptual approach considers gender roles and naturalization to be crucial in the immigrant's decision to remit. For the empirical investigation, the authors use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study for the years 2001–6. The findings show, first, that individual income differences in the country ...

The Welfare State and Gender Equality

Changes in parental leave and young children’s non-cognitive skills

This study examines the effect of substantial changes in parental leave regulations on the non-cognitive development of children aged between 0 and 3 years. I exploit a large and unanticipated parental leave reform in Germany as a natural experiment. Since the first of January 2007, the replacement of a means-tested by an earnings-related system led to a gain in benefits for wealthier families whereas ...

Disentangling the Effects of a Banking Crisis: Evidence from German Firms and Counties

Lending cuts by banks directly affect the firms borrowing from them, but also indirectly depress economic activity in the regions in which they operate. This paper moves beyond firm-level studies by estimating the effects of an exogenous lending cut by a large German bank on firms and counties. I construct an instrument for regional exposure to the lending cut based on a historic, postwar breakup of ...