Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Mental Health over the Life Course: Evidence for a U-Shape?

We aim to identify the age-profile of mental health while introducing minimal bias to reach identification. Using mental health data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) we apply first difference estimation to derive an unbiased estimate of the second derivative of the age effect as well as an estimate up to a linear period trend of the first derivative. Next, we use a battery of estimators ...

Education as a Positional Good? Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

People care about their relative standing in society and therefore compare themselves to relevant others. Empirical findings suggest that there are concerns for relative standing for different goods and life domains such as income, cars, attractiveness, and supervisor’s praise. Even education has been mentioned as having a (partially) positional character. However, there has been only small consideration ...

Refugees’ Mental Health during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Psychological Distress and Continued Loneliness

Many people are suffering from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Refugees, however, belong to one of the underpriviliged groups in many areas of society. They are more likely than average to live in overcrowded living quarters such as community housing and are thus exposed to a higher risk of infection. At the same time, even before the pandemic, they were more likely than average to experience ...

Are temporary jobs stepping stones or dead ends? A systematic review of the literature

We present a meta-analysis on the debate about the "stepping stone vs. dead end" hypothesis related to the causal effect of temporary jobs on future labour market performances. We select academic papers published on international peer-reviewed journals from 1990 until 2021. Among 78 observations from 64 articles, 32% support the hypothesis according to which temporary contracts are a port ...

Value Differences between Refugees and German Citizens: Insights from a Representative Survey

The political debate over the inclusion of refugees frequently revolves around cultural differences, in particular differences pertaining to values, which are suspected to hamper social integration. Sociological accounts of values in principle warrant the assumption that different values promote conflict over sensitive social issues. However, only little is known about the actual values of refugees ...

The role of socioeconomic, cultural, and structural factors in daycare attendance among refugee children

Bisherige Studien haben gezeigt, dass ethnische Bildungsungleichheiten bereits vor der Einschulung entstehen. Es wurde gezeigt, dass insbesondere für Lernende mit Migrationshintergrund eine frühe Bildungsbeteiligung einen positiven Einfluss auf die späteren Bildungsergebnisse hat, wobei der Erwerb der Sprache des Aufnahmelandes einer der Hauptmechanismen für diesen Effekt ist. Mit der Zuwanderung von ...

Broken School Biographies of Adolescent Refugees in Germany (Kapitel 6)

The recent movement of refugees to Germany also included nearly 600,000 children and adolescents. The two-cohort panel study “ReGES – Refugees in the German Educational System”1 was launched to analyze the integration of these minors in the educational system. This chapter introduces our study, its design, and the sample. It then focuses on the adolescent cohort and provides a first description of ...

Establishing a Survey of Refugees in Germany: Challenges in Sampling, Field Work and Measurement

Diese Dissertation betrachtet verschiedene Schritte einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Erhebung zur Integration Geflüchteter in Deutschland. Anhand von vier Zeitschriftenartikeln wird eine neuartige Strategie, um eine Zufallsstichprobe von Geflüchteten in Deutschland zu ziehen, besprochen, die Folgen fehlender muttersprachlicher Übersetzungen von Fragebögen analysiert, latente Konstrukte auf Vergleichbarkeit ...

Labour Market Participation of Refugees in Germany: Legal Context and Individual-level Factors (Kapitel 10)

Labour market access is a crucial aspect of integration. Among other things, it provides migrants with economic resources to participate in societal life in the host country. This chapter explores the factors of labour market access for refugees in Germany. First, we provide a brief overview of how labour market access is determined by legal status. Second, we explore individual aspects of labour market ...

Five Years Later, One Million Refugees Are Thriving in Germany