Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality?

In the last 20 years, German policy makers have reformed the pension system and the labor market with the aim of prolonging working life. As a consequence, older workers’ employment rate and average retirement age rose. In addition to the actual behavior of today’s retiree cohorts, the reforms also influence the expected retirement age of future pensioners, the development of which will be investigated ...

Members of German Federal Parliament More Risk-Loving Than General Population

The article analyzes the question of whether career politicians differ systematically from the general population in terms of their attitudes toward risk. A written survey of members of the 17th German Bundestag in late 2011 identified their risk attitudes, and the survey data was set in relation to respondents to the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the survey year 2009 (2002 through 2012). ...

Are political representatives more risk-loving than the electorate? Evidence from German federal and state parliaments

Political representatives frequently make decisions with far-reaching implications for citizens and societies. Most of these decisions are choices in situations in which the probabilities of gains and losses are hard to estimate. Although decision-making is crucial to politics, existing research has hardly ever addressed the political representation of traits that notably influence decision-making. ...

Believe In A Just Wage? The Effect Of Personality On Labour Market Outcomes

This paper examines the impact of students' non-cognitive skills locus of control and self-esteem on their decision to enroll at college, and on their wages once they enter the labour market. We extend previous research in several ways: a model of belief formation suggests a pathway by which these traits affect economic outcomes and allows to derive testable predictions concerning individuals' ...

On the Misery of Losing Self-employment

German Socio-Economic Panel data is used to show that the decrease in life satisfaction caused by an increase in the probability of losing work is higher when self-employed than when paid employed. Further estimations reveal that becoming unemployed reduces selfemployed workers’ satisfaction considerably more than salaried workers’ satisfaction. These results indicate that losing self-employment is ...

Education and vocational training of Italian Migrants in Germany - The role of family social capital in the creation of human capital

Migration networks and migration decision-making

Drawing on the rational choice approach and the economic sociology of migration, this article discusses the role of social networks in terms of location-specific social capital. It discusses relations between sociological and economic aspects of migration and outlines the influence of social capital on migration decision-making and chain migration processes. There have been various attempts to measure ...

Migration and Statistics

The field of empirical migration and integration research is characterised by a wide range of research questions, theoretical approaches and data sets. Research based on official statistics has to deal with different data sets on migration and foreign population resulting in different numbers. Developments in official statistics concentrate on the improvement of data quality. The census 2010/2011 or ...

Migration and Statistics

The field of empirical research on migration and integration encompasses a wide range of research questions, theoretical approaches, and datasets. Research based on official statistics has to deal with diverse datasets for information on migration and foreign populations, resulting in miscellaneous statements. Recent developments in official statistics have concentrated on the improvement of data quality. ...

Problems of Poverty and Social Security Reform in Germany