Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Explaining Age and Gender Differences in Employment Rates: A Labor Supply-Side Perspective

This paper takes a labor supply perspective (neoclassical labor supply, job search) to explain the lower employment rates of older workers and women. The basic rationale is that workers choose non-employment if their reservation wages are larger than the offered wages. Whereas the latter depend on workers’ productivity and firms’ decisions, reservation wages are largely determined by workers’ endowments ...

On the interpretation of non-cognitive skills - What is being measured and why it matters

Across academic sub-fields such as labor, education, and behavioral economics, the measurement and interpretation of non-cognitive skills varies widely. As a result, it is difficult to compare results on the importance of non-cognitive skills across literatures. Drawing from these literatures, this paper systematically relates various prototypical non-cognitive measures within one data set. Specifically, ...

The Economic Consequences of Widowhood on Elderly Women in the United States and Germany

Is There an American Way of Aging?: Income Dynamics of Elderly in the U.S. and Germany

Firing Costs, Employment Fluctuations and Average Employment: An Examination of Germany

The Effect of Unemployment Compensation on Unemployment Duration in Germany

Hours Reductions as Work-Sharing

Has Work-Sharing Worked in Germany?

The Response of Wages and Actual Hours Worked to the Reduction of Standard Hours

Why Do People Still Live in East Germany?

In 1997 GDP per capita in East Germany was 57% of that of West Germany, wage rates were 75% of western levels, and the unemployment rate was at least double the western rate of 7.8%. One would expect that if capital flows and trade in goods failed to bring convergence, labor flows would respond, enhancing overall efficiency. Yet net emigration from East Germany has fallen from high levels in 1989-1990 ...