Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Non-Take-Up of Means-Tested Social Benefits in Germany

This paper presents non-take-up rates of benefits from the German Income Support for Job Seekers scheme, called Unemployment Benefit II (Arbeitslosengeld II ). Eligibility to these benefits is simulated by applying a microsimulation model based on data from the Socio-economic Panel for the years 2005 to 2014. To ensure the quality of the results, feasible upper and lower bounds of nontake-up are shown ...

Overcoming Barriers to Service Access: Refugees’ Professional Support Service Utilization and the Impact of Human and Social Capital

After arriving in a new country, refugees are typically dependent on professional support to re-establish their livelihood. However, it is well documented that refugees face barriers when seeking access to services aimed at facilitating their settlement. This study examines refugees’ support service needs, their actual utilization, and investigates the impact of social and human capital on service ...

The Stability and Dynamics of Social Relationships: An Analysis of Factors of Influence on Changes in Ego-Centered Networks

This paper investigates the stability and dynamics of social relationships in an attempt to ascertain the conditions under which relationships are stable and the factors that bring about changes. The analysis employs the data of 13,530 participants in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) representative assessments of 2011 and 2016. In order to explain stability and dynamics in the relationships, we took ...

Socioeconomic position and SARS-CoV-2 infections: seroepidemiological findings from a German nationwide dynamic cohort

Background Evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and infections with SARS-CoV-2 is still limited as most of the available studies are ecological in nature. This is the first German nationwide study to examine differences in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections according to SEP at the individual level.Methods The ‘CORONA-MONITORING bundesweit’ (RKI-SOEP) study is a seroepidemiological ...

Essays on the Impact of Education and Family Policies on the Formation of Human Capital

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit der Frage, ob Politikmaßnahmen die Bildung von Humankapital beeinflussen können. Vier eigenständige Forschungsaufsätze untersuchen empirisch die Wirkung von bildungs- und familienpolitischen Maßnahmen in Deutschland auf unterschiedliche Dimensionen von Humankapital. Die Bildung von Humankapital wird als ein dynamischer Prozess betrachtet, der sich über den gesamten ...

The education of recently arrived refugees in Germany: Conditions, processes, and outcomes

The effects of health shocks on family status: do financial incentives encourage marriage?

This paper asks whether marriage decisions of unmarried mature couples are driven by the prospect of financial advantages for the later widowed after one partner has suffered a serious health shock. We hypothesize that, in contrast to traditional marriage models, such health shocks may induce unmarried couples to obtain economic benefits, such as survivors’ pensions in particular, through marriage ...

Pension Incentives and Early Retirement

In this paper we exploit a cohort-specific pension reform to estimate the labour market effects of changes in the financial incentives to retire. In particular, we analyse the effects of the introduction of cohort-specific deductions for early retirement on female retirement, employment and unemployment. For the empirical analysis we use high-quality administrative data from the German pension insurance. ...

Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Research Meets Household Panel Surveys: Research Potentials of the German Socio-Economic Panel and Its Boost Sample of SGM Households

There are numerous challenges to studying structural inequality in sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations, from the difficulty of obtaining a representative sample to issues comparing data across populations. This data brief illustrates how the largest household panel survey in Germany, the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), and its recent nationwide boost sample of SGM households, Sample Q, ...

Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?

We contribute to the happiness literature by analyzing the causal relationship between sports and happiness. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we find a positive correlation between sports participation and reported life satisfaction. This relationship is stronger at younger and older ages than in middle age, and for people in bad health compared to those in average ...