Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Unemployment Duration and Sport Participation

In this study we use the German Socio-Economic Panel to evaluate the impact of leisure sport participation on the unemployment duration. The empirical literature on sport participation has focused on labor market outcomes and job quality while the impact of this activity on job search has not been studied. Sports participation fosters socialization which, through the networking effect, accelerates ...

Mozart or Pelé? The effects of teenagers’ participation in music and sports

We analyse the effects of playing music, or doing sports on education and health outcomes of adolescents. After identifying adolescents who play music, do sports, or both, in the German Socio-Economic Panel, we use matching procedures to estimate causal effects. We find that playing music instead of doing sports fosters educational outcomes by about 0.1 standard deviations. Effects are stronger for ...

Physical Activity of Adults: A Survey of Correlates, Determinants, and Effects

We survey the literature on the link of labour market related outcomes to individual physical activity and sports participation. The first part of the survey is devoted to the individual participation decision and is based on papers from various disciplines. The second part summarises parts of the epidemiological literature on health effects and the economic literature on the labour market effects ...

Measuring job satisfaction in surveys - Comparative analytical report

National working conditions surveys in Europe: A compilation

This report describes surveys in 15 EU Member States that meet two conditions: they are national, covering all or most of the working population; and they relate at least primarily to working conditions issues, such as health and safety at the workplace, work organisation, quality of working life and work–life balance. For each survey, a data sheet provides the main characteristics of the survey in ...

Population Aging and Individual Attitudes toward Immigration: Disentangling Age, Cohort and Time Effects

In the face of rising old-age dependency ratios in industrialized countries like Germany, politicians and their electorates discuss the loosening of immigration policies as one policy option to ensure the sustainability of public social security systems. The question arises whether this policy option is feasible in aging countries: older individuals are typically found to be more averse to immigration. ...

Exploring the Long Term Effects of Educational Policies on the Income Redistribution Processes

Missing at Work – Sickness-related Absence and Subsequent Job Mobility

Economists often interpret absenteeism as an indicator of effort. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, this paper offers a comprehensive discussion of this view by analysing various forms of job mobility. The evidence reveals a significantly negative (positive) link between sickness-related absence and the probability of a subsequent promotion (dismissal). In line with the ...

Flexibilisation without Hesitation? Temporary Contracts and Workers’ Satisfaction

Fixed-term contracts are often considered a key policy tool for increasing employment. As we show that contract limitation lowers job satisfaction using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel study, we detect a drawback of promoting temporary employment that has not been identified so far. We find that the “honeymoon-hangover” effect of a new job must be taken into account to reveal this result. ...

How Job Changes Affect People's Lives – Evidence from Subjective Well-being Data

For representative German panel data, we document that voluntary job switching is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, though only for some time, whereas forced job changes do not affect life satisfaction clearly. Using plant closures as an exogenous trigger of switching to a new employer, we find that job mobility turns out to be harmful for satisfaction with family life. By investigating ...