Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Nearly universal, but somewhat distinct: The feminization of poverty in affluent Western democracies, 1969-2000

Party to Inequality: Right Party Power and Income Inequality in Affluent Western Democracies

Much social science suggests that income inequality is a product of economic and demographic factors and recent work highlights the influence of Leftist politics in affluent Western democracies. But, prior research has neglected rightist politics. We examine the impact of cumulative right party power on three measures of income inequality in an unbalanced panel of 16 affluent Western democracies from ...

Is there more than one linkage between Social Network and Inequality?

Growing Up in Ethnic Enclaves: Language Proficiency and Educational Attainment of Immigrant Children

Does a high regional concentration of immigrants of the same ethnicity affect immigrant children’s acquisition of host-country language skills and educational attainment? We exploit the exogenous placement of guest workers from five ethnicities across German regions during the 1960s and 1970s in a model with region and ethnicity fixed effects. Our results indicate that exposure to a higher own-ethnic ...

Determinants of Integration and Its Impact on the Economic Success of Immigrants: A Case Study of the Turkish Community in Berlin

Ethnic concentration and language fluency of immigrants: Evidence from the guest-worker placement in Germany

This paper analyses the impact of regional ethnic concentration on the language proficiency and language use of immigrants. It solves the endogeneity of immigrants’ location choices by exploiting a peculiar episode of the German immigration history: the exogenous placement of guest-workers after WWII, one of the largest guest-worker programs on record. The econometric approach accounts for several ...

Do Ethnic Enclaves Impede Immigrants’ Integration? Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Social-Interaction Approach

It is widely debated whether immigrants who live among co-ethnics are less willing to integrate into the host society. Exploiting the quasi-experimental guest worker placement across German regions during the 1960/70s as well as information on immigrants’ interethnic contact networks and social activities, we are able to identify the causal effect of ethnic concentration on social integration. The ...

Beggar Thy Neighbour?

A large literature emphasizes the virtues of home ownership. This article illustrates that homeowners’ influence need not always be benign. Taking a first look at large vacant housing in East Germany, the article in part attributes vacant housing and its demolition to homeowners’ interest in keeping real estate prices up.

Partisanship and Political Sophistication During and Outside of Election Times: A Longitudinal Analysis Using the German SOEP Survey 1984–2012

In many established democracies, partisan attachments play a central role in guiding citizens' attitudes as well as their political behaviour. Most importantly, partisanship has an effect on what party citizens vote for on Election Day. In general, highly politically sophisticated citizens are more likely to identify with a party compared to the less politically sophisticated. This article argues ...

Age, Period and Cohort Effects in the Decline of Party Identification in Germany: An Analysis of a Two Decade Panel Study in Germany (1992–2009)

Party identification traditionally is seen as an important linkage mechanism, connecting voters to the party system. Previous analyses have suggested that the level of party identity is in decline in Germany, and this article first expands previous observations with more recent data. These suggest that the erosion of party identity continues up to the present time. An age–period–cohort analysis of ...