Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Media Coverage and Immigration Worries: Econometric Evidence

This paper empirically explores the link between mass media coverage of migration and immigration worries. Using detailed data on media coverage in Germany, we show that the amount of media reports regarding migration issues is positively associated with concerns about immigration among the German population. The association is robust to the inclusion of time-variant individual control variables and ...

The perception of the income tax: Evidence from Germany

The paper explores whether the tax rule defined by the tax law or the perception of the tax system by the single household matters in explaining household behaviour. In particular, Germany applies joint taxation with marital splitting to married couples. However, the couple has the choice between two formulas when paying the tax. In both cases, the perceived marginal tax rate, i.e. the rate which practically ...

Welfare analysis of Fiscal Reforms: Does the Representation of the Family Decision Process Matter? Evidence from Germany

Welfare Analysis of a Tax Reform for Germany: A Comparison of the Unitary and Collective Models of Household Labour Supply

Understanding Rising Income Inequality in Germany, 1999/2000–2005/2006

We examine the factors behind rising income inequality in Europe's most populous economy. From 1999/2000 to 2005/2006, Germany experienced an unprecedented rise in net equivalized income inequality and poverty. At the same time, unemployment rose to record levels, part-time and marginal part-time work grew, and there was evidence for a widening distribution of labor incomes. Other factors that ...

Direct Estimation of Equivalence Scales and More Evidence on Independence of Base

We explore a direct approach to estimating household equivalence scales from income satisfaction data. Our method differs from previous approaches to using satisfaction data for this purpose in that it can be used to directly fit and evaluate closed-form and non-parametric equivalence scales of any desired form. Its flexibility makes it easy to consider specific aspects such as income dependence or ...

Unemployment Persistence: Is There Evidence for Stigma Effects?

We explore the idea that a negative relationship between individual unemployment persistence and the business cycle can be interpreted as evidence for stigma effects. Our results suggest that there is weak evidence for stigma effects.

Trends in the German Income Distribution: 2005/06 to 2010/11

We analyze the potential influence of a number of factors on the distribution of equivalized net incomes in Germany over the period 2005/2006 to 2010/11. While income inequality considerably increased in the years before 2005/2006, this trendwas stopped after 2005/2006. Among many other factors, we consider the role of the employment boom and the development of inequality in wage incomes after 2005/2006. ...

Unemployment duration and the length of entitlement periods for unemployment benefits: do the IAB employment subsample and the German Socio-Economic Panel yield the same results?

Impact of income redistribution on middle class households: a cross-country comparison based on the LIS data

In the context of economic and financial difficulties, the debate over the effect of income taxation and redistribution has come back in most of the European countries. In this paper, we use the LIS data to examine the impact of income redistribution on middle class households from a cross-country perspective. To this aim, we calculate the balance between, on the one hand, the taxes and social contributions ...