Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Economic Costs of Mass Surveillance: Insights from Stasi Spying in East Germany

Based on official records from the former East German Ministry for State Security, we quantify the long-term costs of state surveillance on social capital and economic performance. Using county-level variation in the spy density in the 1980s, we exploit discontinuities at state borders to show that higher levels of Stasi surveillance led to lower levels of social capital as measured by interpersonal ...

The Long-Term Costs of Government Surveillance: Insights from Stasi Spying in East Germany

Despite the prevalence of government surveillance systems around the world, causal evidence on their social and economic consequences is lacking. Using county-level variation in the number of Stasi informers within Socialist East Germany during the 1980s and accounting for potential endogeneity, we show that more intense regional surveillance led to lower levels of trust and reduced social activity ...

Many refugees have work experience but a smaller share possess formal vocational qualifications

Academic and vocational qualifications play a crucial role when it comes to successfully integrating refugees and other migrants into society. What qualifications did migrants already acquire in their country of origin and which did they obtain in Germany? And to what extent are qualifications gained abroad recognized in Germany? The IAB-SOEP Migration Sample shows that the majority of the migrant ...

Language acquisition: refugees nearly achieve proficiency level of other migrants

Whether they’re looking to participate in social life, enter the German labor market, or obtain relevant training certificates, learning German is a critical part of integration for the majority of refugees—and yet only a handful of studies have examined their language acquisition patterns and skill levels. The IAB-SOEP Migration Sample, which was collected by the Institute for Employment Research ...

Considering Emigration: German university graduates are moving abroad—but only temporarily

Much of the current German debate about the integration of immigrants overlooks the fact that Germany is not solely a country of immigration, but also—and to a substantial degree—a country of emigration. One of the largest groups of emigrants is made up of Germans themselves. The percentage of German natives in the total population of emigrants has risen substantially over the last few years. In 2009, ...

Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Surveys: Linking Individual Date to Organizational Data in Life-Course Analysis

Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Surveys. Linking Individual Data to Organizational Data in Life-Course Analysis

This paper starts with three fundamental insights from social science and economics: (1) that the conditions and consequences of individual behavior can only be studied empirically on the basis of longitudinal data, (2) that individual behavior is embedded in social contexts and social aggregates, and (3) that formal organizations – e.g., firms, schools, universities – are becomming more important ...

Differential trends in households’ connection to the Internet: An actor-centered explanation

In this article, an actor-centered model of households’ decision to obtain an Internet connection is set up to explain the diffusion of Internet technology. First, we derive a mechanism based on the demand and supply of online information, services, and goods which drives this diffusion. Afterwards, we link this mechanism to social inequalities with regard to digital technologies and deduce hypotheses ...

How Do Insured Perceive Their Financial Security in the Event of Illness?—A Panel Data Analysis for Germany

Objective There is a lack of research regarding the subjective perception of financial security in the event of illness of insured persons. Therefore, the aim of our study was to analyze the subjective perception of financial security in the event of illness in the German setting over time and to identify major determinants of that perception. Methods We applied a probit-adapted ordinary least squares ...

Demand for Supplemental Health Insurance in Germany – Improving Quality of Care and Closing Coverage Gaps

We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to analyze determinants of the demand for sup-plemental health insurance covering hospital and dental in Germany. The GSOP dataset provides doctor diagnosed indicators of the individual’s health state, risk attitude, and demand for medical services and insurance purchases in other lines of insurance as well as rich demographical and socio-economical information. ...