Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Maternal Employment and Happiness: The Effect of Non-Participation and Part-Time Employment on Mothers’ Life Satisfaction

In contrast to unemployment, the effect of non-participation and parttime employment on subjective well-being has much less frequently been the subject of economists’ investigations. In Germany, many women with dependent children are involuntarily out of the labor force or in part-time employment because of family constraints (e.g., due to lack of available and appropriate childcare). Using data from ...

The Chernobyl Disaster, Concern about the Environment, and Life Satisfaction

Maternal Employment, Life Satisfaction, and Child Developmental Outcomes (Dissertation)

Locus of Control and Mothers’ Return to Employment

This paper investigates the effect of locus of control (LOC) on the length of mothers’ employment break after childbirth. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), duration data reveals that women with an internal LOC return to employment more quickly than women with an external LOC.We find that this effect is particularly pronounced in jobs in which the penalties in terms of lower ...

Unburden Renters by Making Landlords Pay the Commission? Evaluating a Policy Reform in Germany

When renting an apartment, often a commission is payable by the renter. In a perfect market, standard economic reasoning predicts the rental price for an apartment with a commission payable by the renter to be lower than the price for the same apartment without commission. We test this hypothesis against an alternative hypothesis based on insights from behavioral economics about mental accounting, ...

Maternal life satisfaction and child outcomes: Are they related?

This paper investigates the association between maternal life satisfaction and the developmental functioning of two- to three-year-old children as well as the socio-emotional behavior of five- to six-year-old children. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which allows us to control for a rich set of child and parental characteristics and to use the mother’s life satisfaction ...

Varieties of Affluence: How Political Attitudes of the Rich Are Shaped by Income or Wealth

Sociological research often uses income as the only indicator to describe or proxy the group of the rich. This article develops an alternative framework in order to describe varieties of affluence as three-dimensional: depending on income, wealth, and origin of wealth. The relevance of such a multidimensional perspective for social outcomes is demonstrated by analysing the heterogeneity in political ...

On the economics of sickness absence and presenteeism (Thesis)

This thesis deals with economic aspects of employees' sickness. In addition to the classical case of sickness absence, in which an employee is completely unable to work and hence stays at home, there is the case of sickness presenteeism, in which the employee comes to work despite being sick. Accordingly, the thesis at hand covers research on both sickness states, absence and presenteeism. The ...

Sickness Absence and Works Councils: Evidence from German Individual and Linked Employer–Employee Data

Using both household and linked employer-employee data for Germany, we assess the effects of non-union representation in the form of works councils on (1) individual sickness absence rates and (2) a subjective measure of personnel problems due to sickness absence as perceived by a firm's management. We find that the existence of a works council is positively correlated with the incidence and the ...

Political culture still divided 25 years after reunification?

In 1990, during reunification, West German democratic institutions and the existing political party system were expanded to the East German states. Even after 25 years, the people of eastern and western Germany still differ in their political engagement and attitudes. However, these differences do not apply across the board by any means. A detailed analysis of survey data from the Socio-Economic Panel ...