Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Earnings Function under Test

The Impact of Social Support Networks on Maternal Employment: A Comparison of Western German, Eastern German and Migrant Mothers

Despite numerous advantages of a quick re-entry into the labor market, it is still common for German mothers to interrupt employment for several years after child birth. Lack of adequate child care is mentioned as the number one barrier to maternal employment. Given the shortages in (full-time) public child care in particular for the under-threes, this paper asks whether social support with child care ...

Spatial Mobility, Family Dynamics, and Housing Transitions

This paper summarizes theoretical approaches and empirical research on the links between partnership and family dynamics on the one hand and spatial mobility and housing transitions on the other. Spatial mobility includes residential relocations and commuting. We consider three types of partnerships—living apart together, unmarried and married co-residential unions—and the transitions between them. ...

Impact of Everyday Technology on the Home Environment on Older Adults' Quality of Life

The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in the Nineties. An Example of Incremental Innovations in an Ongoing Longitudinal Study

The main aim of the present paper is to historically reappraise the development of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) in the 1990s after the first six waves had been collected. This development was closely connected to the opening of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Wall separating the two German states. In addition to its relevance for the SOEP, this study is also of ...

The dynamics of social exclusion in Germany: solving the east-west dilemma?

Socio-Economic Status and Mortality

Receiving Social Assistance in Germany: Risk and Duration

Although receiving social assistance is a dynamic process, analyses of such processes tend to be static. This is particularly so in Germany where there is no empirical data base for studying processes of poverty and receipt of social assistance, except for the Bremen Longitudinal Social Assistance Sample (LSA). This article draws on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to complement analyses of ...

The German East-West Mortality Difference: Two Crossovers Driven by Smoking

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, mortality was considerably higher in the former East Germany than in West Germany. The gap narrowed rapidly after German reunification. The convergence was particularly strong for women, to the point that Eastern women aged 50–69 now have lower mortality despite lower incomes and worse overall living conditions. Prior research has shown that lower smoking rates among ...

Care for Money? Mortality improvements, increasing intergenerational transfers, and time devoted to the elderly

Background: After the reunification of Germany, mortality among older eastern Germans converged quickly with western German levels. Simultaneously, the pension benefits of eastern Germans rose tenfold. Objective: We make use of German reunification as a natural experiment to show that, first, increasing financial transfers from the elderly to their children led to increasing reverse transfers in the ...