Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Smoking Bans, Leisure Time, and Subjective Well-being

During 2007 and 2008 smoking bans were gradually implemented in all of Germany’s sixteen federal states to prohibit smoking in bars, restaurants, and dance clubs. Aimed at reducing smoking and improving health, tobacco control policies are often controversially discussed as they entail potential side effects. We exploit regional variation to identify effects of smoking bans on life satisfaction and ...

Caregiving, Welfare States and Mothers' Poverty

Benefit Duration, Unemployment Duration and Job Match Quality: A Regression-Discontinuity Approach

The generosity of the Unemployment Insurance system (UI) plays a central role for the job search behavior of unemployed individuals. Standard search theory predicts that an increase in UI benefit generosity, either in terms of benefit duration or entitlement, has a negative impact on the job search activities of the unemployed increasing their unemployment duration. Despite the disincentive effect ...

Self-Employment Dynamics, State Dependence and Cross-Mobility Patterns

Evaluating the German "Mini-Job" Reform Using a True Natural Experiment

Increasing work incentives for people with low income is a common topic in the policy debate across European countries. The ‘Mini-Job’ reform in Germany had a similar motivation. We carry out an ex-post evaluation to identify the short-run effects of this reform. Our identification strategy uses an exogenous variation in the interview months in the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which allows us ...

Short-Run Distributional Effects of Public Education Transfers to Tertiary Education Students in Seven European Countries

Direct provision of public services can alter the balance of resources across income groups. We focus on the issues arising when taking account of the impact of publicly provided education services across the income distribution. We combine OECD information on spending per student in particular levels of the education system with micro data from nationwide income surveys to track the allocation of ...

Poverty Dynamics in Europe. A Multilevel Discrete-Time Recurrent Hazard Analysis

Does Money Buy Immigrant Happiness?

The relationship between income and happiness for international immigrants has been relatively unexplored. A handful of cross-sectional studies has shown that income and happiness are positively correlated after migration, and that wealthier immigrants are more satisfied with their post-migration lives than are their less privileged peers. What is unclear is if the link between income and happiness ...

Short- and Mid-Term Effects of a Parenting Program on Maternal Well-Being: Evidence for more and less advantaged mothers

This paper evaluates how a light-touch parenting program for parents of children below school entry age affects maternal well-being. We first analyze data from a randomized controlled trial focusing on more advantaged parents. Second, we use a sample of mothers from deprived neighborhoods, for which we generate a control group using additional data. Overall, results show a relatively large positive ...

A SOEP-Related Study: Early Childhood Education and Care Quality in the Socio-Economic Panel (K2ID-SOEP)