Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Social Protection as an Automatic Stabilizer

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of social protection systems in Europe and the US to provide (income) insurance against macro level shocks in terms of automatic stabilizers. We find that automatic stabilizers absorb 38% of a proportional income shock and 47% of an idiosyncratic unemployment shock in Europe, compared to 32% and 34% in the US. There is large heterogeneity within Europe with stabilization ...

Recent evolution of poverty in the European countries

The evolution of economic inequality in the EU countries during the nineties

Timing of first birth and well-being in later life

A large body of literature has documented a negative association between early childbearing and well-being in later life. The effects of late parenthood are mixed, due to different social and physiological mechanisms as well as selection processes for the timing of first birth. This article extends the literature by employing propensity score matching to estimate effects of birth timing on life satisfaction ...

Migration and Culture

Culture is not new to the study of migration. It has lurked beneath the surface for some time, occasionally protruding openly into the discussion, usually under some pseudonym. The authors bring culture into the open. They are concerned with how culture manifests itself in the migration process for three groups of actors: the migrants, those remaining in the sending areas, and people already living ...

How Big is the Gig? Assessing the Preliminary Evidence on the Effects of Digitalization on the Labor Market

The German Labor Market: Still Adjusting Badly?

Workforce segmentation in Germany: from the founding era to the present time

Despite a more recent debate about ever deeper segmentation, the authors argue that since industrialization, Germany has continually experienced a dual labor market. One segment contains the primary segment of better paid and more attractive jobs, while the secondary segment encompasses rather low paid, less stable and less attractive jobs. Dualization is the result of firms which are likely to hire ...

Quantity over Quality? A European Comparison of the Changing Nature of Transitions between Non-Employment and Employment

This paper explores the empirical evidence for the claim that non-employed men and women in post-industrial labour markets are more likely to make the transition into employment than has previously been the case. It concludes that whilst the unemployed and the inactive remain distinct groups with regards to transitions into employment, post-industrial labour markets have indeed become more inclusive. ...

The Use of Flexible Measures to Cope with Economic Crises in Germany and Brazil

This study gives a comparative overview of labor market dynamics and institutional arrangements in Germany and Brazil with particular emphasis on industrial relations, wage setting, unemployment benefits, employment protection and vocational training. The paper shows that institutions determine the mode of adjustment to changing economic conditions and the role of standard vs. non-standard contracts. ...