Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Role of Polygenic Indices in Inequality of Opportunity

Equality of opportunity is a principle of social justice, although there are different conceptions of it. We distinguish between fair and luck egalitarian equality of opportunity. Both conceptions consider to be unfair inequalities in life chances resulting from ascribed characteristics such as social origin and sex. They differ, however, in that fair equality of opportunity considers it fair when ...

Homeownership rates, housing policies, and co-residence decisions

Homeownership rates differ widely across European countries. We document that part of this variation is driven by differences in the fraction of adults co-residing with their parents. Comparing Germany and Italy, we show that in contrast to homeownership rates per household, homeownership rates per individual are very similar during the first part of the life cycle. To understand these patterns, we ...

Physical activity, health, and life satisfaction: Four panel studies demonstrate reciprocal effects

We examined the between-person correlations and within-person reciprocal effects of physical activity, long-standing health issues, self-rated health, and life satisfaction across four panels using random intercept cross-lagged panel models. Data were analyzed from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA, N = 32,913, 21 waves, 1-year intervals), the German Socio-Economic ...

SOEP Annual Report 2021

SOEP Annual Report 2022

The Speed of Earnings Responses to Taxation and the Role of Firm Labor Demand

This paper studies the speed at which workers’ pretax earnings respond to tax changes along the intensive margin. We do so in the context of Germany, where a large notch in the tax schedule induces sharp bunching in the earnings distribution. We analyze earnings responses to two policy reforms that shift this notch outward and find clear evidence that frictions delay the earnings responses of more ...

Wealth and mortality among late-middle-aged individuals in Norway: a nationwide register-based retrospective study

Background In recent decades, we have observed rising wealth inequality while the pace of growth of life expectancy has slowed in many Western welfare democracies. There is scarce evidence, however, on links between wealth and mortality. The main methodological limitation in this area of scholarship is its inability to account for individuals' unobserved heterogeneity, such as personality and ...

Too worried about the environment to have children? Or more worried about the environment after having children? The reciprocal relationship between environmental concerns and fertility

Climate change is one of the central challenges for contemporary societies. It is widely discussed as triggering “climate anxiety,” and as dampening the desire to reproduce, particularly among young people. Conversely, parenthood could affect people’s attitudes and behaviors toward the environment. Empirically, however, little is known about this potentially reciprocal relationship due to the lack ...

‘Escape’ from Home? The Moderating Role of Sexual Orientation on the Association Between Social Origin and Educational Attainment

Previous research has documented that sexual orientation relates to educational attainment, and that it might do so differently for men and women. In this paper, we investigate to what extent sexual orientation moderates the relationship between social origin and educational attainment and whether the educational premium among LGB people might be concentrated among individuals from lower socioeconomic ...

Why Do Migrants Stay Unexpectedly? Misperceptions and Implications for Integration

Empirical evidence suggests that a large proportion of immigrants who initially intended to stay temporarily in the destination country end up staying permanently, which may lead to suboptimal integration. We study systematic causes of unexpected staying that originate in migrant misperceptions. Our framework contains uncertainty about long-term wages, endogenous integration and savings in the short ...