Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

What Makes Single Mothers Expand or Reduce Employment?

To explore single mothers’ labor market participation we analyzed specific circumstances and dynamics in their life courses. We focused on the question which individual and institutional factors determine both professional advancement and professional descent. The German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2010) provides all necessary information identifying episodes of single motherhood and analyzing restrictions ...

The German Socio-Economic Panel

The First Six Waves of SOEP - The Panel Project in the Years 1983 to 1989

The Employment of Mothers – Recent Developments and their Determinants in East and West Germany

We apply German Mikrozensus data for the period 1996 to 2004 to investigate the employment status of mothers. Specifically, we ask whether there are behavioral differences between mothers in East and West Germany, whether these differences disappear over time, and whether there are differences in the developments for high and low skilled females. We find substantial differences in the employment behavior ...

Wage, Labour Mobility and Working Time Effects of Profit Sharing

Are Profit Shares and Wages Substitute or Complementary Forms of Compensation?

Educational Choice and Risk Aversion: How Important Is Structural vs. Individual Risk Aversion?

According to sociological theories on educational choice, risk aversion is the main driving force for class-specific educational decisions. Families from upper social classes have to opt for the academically most demanding, long-lasting courses to avoid an intergenerational status loss. Families from lower social classes by contrast, tend instead to opt for shorter tracks to reduce the risk of failing ...

Assimilation over the Life Course? The Career Mobility of Second-Generation Turkish Men in Germany

Studies of second-generation migrant assimilation have thus far focused on intergenerational mobility. However, career-mobility processes can also contribute to ethnic assimilation over the course of migrants’ careers. This study analyzes second-generation Turkish men’s labor-market and income mobility over the course of their early careers relative to those of autochthonous Germans. The results indicate ...

Do second-generation Turkish migrants in Germany assimilate into the middle class?

The understanding of career paths of migrants is crucial for gaining deeper insights into assimilation processes. However, previous studies in Germany have paid little attention to middle-class assimilation and the career sequences of the second generation of migrants. This paper focuses on early employment career patterns of the children of guest workers, both men and women and especially those of ...

Qualitative Interviewing of Respondents in Large Representative Surveys

Large representative surveys are using mixed methods to an ever-increasing degree. Biomarkers, register data, and experiments, for example, provide different types of data that can be linked with survey data. The use of qualitative interviewing of participants in longitudinal surveys is, however, still rare in the social sciences. Yet qualitative methods have proven just as valuable as quantitative ...