Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

A Sequential Decomposition of the Drop in Collective Bargaining Coverage

Union representation has been in strong decline in most OECD countries with potentially important consequences for wages. What drives this decline? We try to answer this question by developing and implementing a detailed Fairlie decomposition approach. Using linked employer-employee data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey for 2001 and 2006, we document a sharp drop in collective bargaining ...

Age effects on employment after first birth - A timing of events approach

The effects of employment breaks on labor market outcomes are of great relevance in particular for females in relation with childbirth. In this paper we estimate the effect of the timing of women’s first birth on later labor market outcomes, more precisely the effect on employment. In order to investigate the treatment effect of having the first childbirth now or waiting, we employ the dynamic treatment ...

Causal effects on employment after first birth - A dynamic treatment approach

The effects of childbirth on future labor market outcomes are a key issue for policy discussion. This paper implements a dynamic treatment approach to estimate the effect of having the first child now versus later on future employment for the case of Germany, a country with a long maternity leave coverage. Effect heterogeneity is assessed by estimating ex post outcome regressions. Based on SOEP data, ...

Volunteering after retirement. Evidence from German panel data

In view of the steady growth in life expectancy in recent decades the question is increasingly being raised whether and how older people should be encouraged to be more active, and particularly to engage in unpaid voluntary work. Taking adult life as a whole the conditions for such charitable involvement would appear to be especially favourable after retirement. However, these analyses, which are based ...

Nowhere Better Than Here? The Subjective Well-Being of German Emigrants and Remigrants

Anticipation of Life Satisfaction Before Emigration: Evidence from German Panel Data

Sociological as well as economic research stresses the impact of so called ‘push and pull factors’ on individual migration decisions. These push and pull factors are often understood as a combination of individual socio-economic and socio-demographic determinants and institutional contexts in home and (possible) destination countries. However, within this framework there is only little research on ...

Migration, social stratification and dynamic effects on subjective well being

Using German panel data and relying on internal relocation, this paper investigates the anticipation and adaptation of subjective well-being (SWB) in the course of migration. We hypothesize that SWB correlates with the process of migration, and that such correlations are at least partly socially stratified. Our fixed-effects regressions show no evidence of any anticipation of SWB before the event of ...

How to measure job stability - A comparison of two measurement concepts (Chapter XI)

Can voluntary work be a substitute for gainful employment? Should welfare recipients earn their benefits by doing voluntary work?

Intergenerational Mobility and Marital Sorting

We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey to estimate the extent of intergenerational economic mobility in a framework that highlights the role played by assortative mating. We find that assortative mating plays an important role. On average about 40-50% of the covariance between parents' and own permanent family income can be attributed to the person ...