Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Too tall to be smart? The relationship between height and cognitive abilities

Recent research suggests for height-wage premiums because of differentials in cognitive abilities. This note adds to the discussion and examines whether verbal and non-verbal competencies are related to height. The results indicate that height is nonlinearly associated to males’ abilities.

Do your brains help you out of unemployment?

This study examines the relationship between individuals’ cognitive abilities, unemployment propensity and unemployment entry or exit. Cognitive skills only weakly affect unemployment propensity and contribute little to individual heterogeneity. They, however, help employed males to stay out of unemployment.

Love Thy Neighbor: Religion and Prosocial Behavior

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between religious involvement and attitudinal (importance of helping others and of being socially active) and behavioral components of prosociality (volunteering, charitable giving, and blood donations) in Germany. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analyses are based on representative, longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic ...

The Returns to Cognitive Abilities and Personality Traits in Germany

We provide the first joint evidence on the relationship between individuals' cognitive abilities, their personality and earnings for Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we employ scores from an ultra-short IQ-test and a set of measures of personality traits, namely locus of control, reciprocity and all basic items from the Five Factor Personality Inventory. Our estimates ...

Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Germany - the last five decades

Over the last decades the German education system underwent numerous reforms in order to improve “equality of opportunity”, i.e. to guarantee all pupils independent of parental background equal access to higher education. At the same time internationally comparative evidence yields that Germany features particularly low intergenerational mobility with respect to educational attainment. This study investigates ...

Substance Use and Earnings: The Case of Smokers in Germany

Fly Me to the Moon: The Determinants of Secondary Jobholding in Germany and the UK

Labour Market Entry of Young People Analysed by a Double Threshold Model

Job Insecurity: Differential Effects of Subjective and Objective Measures on Life Satisfaction Trajectories of Workers Aged 27–30 in Germany

Job insecurity has become increasingly evident in European countries in recent years. In Germany, legislation has increased insecurity through erosion of the standard employment relationship. Fixed-term contracts are central to definitions of insecurity based on atypical or precarious work but there is still limited understanding of what creates insecurity and how it affects workers. Drawing on Bourdieu’s ...

Income Inequality Developments in the Great Recession