Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Who stays, who goes, who returns? East–West migration within Germany since reunification

We study the determinants of East–West migration within Germany during the period 1990–2006, using administrative data, the German Microcensus and the German Socio-Economic Panel. We find that in addition to income prospects and employment status, two well-known determinants of migration, psychological and social factors play an important role in determining the migration decision. Men and women move ...

Solidarity with EU Countries in Crisis: Results of a 2015 Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Survey

In response to the European sovereign debt and currency crisis, the EU has begun to implement measures toward fiscal solidarity at least for the euro area. Survey data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study show that just under half of all adults in Germany generally support providing assistance to EU countries experiencing financial difficulties. Almost one in three respondents also advocate the ...

Occupation, Prestige, and Voluntary Work in Retirement: Empirical Evidence from Germany

The paper examines the extent to which the prestige value of a retiree’s former occupation increases the likelihood that they will make a transition into volunteering after retirement. Following social production function theory, we assume that when a person retires, the prestige value attached to their former occupation fades. The fact that volunteering has the character of a collective good provides ...

The long shadow of occupation: Volunteering in retirement

This article examines the extent to which the former occupation of an employee impacts the likelihood that he or she will decide to volunteer upon retirement. Following social production function theory, we assume that beginning with retirement, the status value attached to their former occupation fades. Because volunteering has the character of a collective good, it provides an opportunity to gain ...

Risk takers follow in parents' footsteps

Health Measurement and Health Inequality Over the Life Course: A Comparison of Self-rated Health, SF-12, and Grip Strength

The cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis predicts education differences in health to increase with age. All previous tests of this hypothesis were based on self-reported health measures. Recent research has suggested that self-reported health measures may not adequately capture differences in key analytical constructs, including education, age, cohort, and gender. In this study, I tested the cumulative ...

Maternal Education, Divorce, and Changes in Economic Resources: Evidence from Germany

This study investigated the effects of divorce on educational gaps in mothers’ economic resources. The results shed new light on two opposing theoretical positions that have informed research on social inequality in the consequences of divorce. Recent extensions of the “diverging destinies” perspective posit that divorce is more consequential among the disadvantaged than among the privileged. The notion ...

Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative (Dis)Advantage and Its Rising Importance in Germany

Research from the United States has supported two hypotheses. First, educational gaps in health widen with age—the cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis. Second, this relationship has intensified across cohorts—the rising importance hypothesis. In this article, we used 23 waves of panel data (Socio-Economic Panel Study, 1992–2014) to examine both hypotheses in the German context. We considered individual ...

Do Immigrants Suffer More from Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-Being in Germany

This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal ...

Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Multiple-Outcome Comparison of Former Spouses

This study examined gender differences in the consequences of divorce for multiple measures of psychological, economic, and domestic well-being. I used household panel data from the German SOEP, retaining the link between initially married couples (N = 755) to compare both spouses over a period of up to four years before and after divorce. Findings showed that men were more vulnerable to short-term ...