SOEP-Suche

A test for the convexity of human well-being over the life cycle: Longitudinal evidence from a 20-year panel

A huge cross-section literature, written by economists and others, argues that human well-being is U-shaped through the life cycle. In many cases this U-shape is robust (with a well-known exception the pattern evident in some U.S. data sets if few independent variables are included). However, a lively debate is currently ongoing about its true shape. This paper discusses the identification problem ...

A test based on panel refreshments for panel conditioning in stated utility measures

Adapting a methodology proposed in Das et al. (2011), this paper uses panel refreshments as a natural experiment to determine whether trends in stated utility measures observed in panel data are genuine or rather caused by measurement issues.

Income and poverty consequences of social mobility in European welfare states

Life Course Risks or Cumulative Disadvantage? The Structuring Effect of Social Stratification Determinants and Life Course Events on Poverty Transitions in Europe

The aim of this article is to assess the importance of a life event perspective on poverty in relation to the traditional social stratification approach. Lately, poverty has often been seen as a life course risk associated with certain life events and less influenced by characteristics of social position. The empirical part of this article explores the importance of the life course perspective as well ...

Attrition in Panel Data: The Effectiveness of Weighting

Although weighting seems to be a popular strategy for coping with panel attrition in sociological research it is not clear how effective it is in reducing attrition bias. This article aims to fill this gap by giving an assessment of the effectiveness of weighting in the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). Estimates of the distribution of social class and education appear to be dropout biased ...

Women’s Labour Force Exit: the Role of her Partner’s Socio-Economic Position

Using the longitudinal data of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) we studied the effect of both partners’ education and occupational status on womens likelihood to exit the labour market and to become a housewife. The event-history analyses show that women partnered with high status men were more likely to exit the labour force than women with lower status partners. Yet, stronger than the effects of the ...

Refinancing Europe's higher education through deferred and income-contingent fees: An empirical assessment using Belgian, German and UK data

The arguments for refinancing the European Union's (EU) higher education via higher tuition fees largely rest on preserving the profitability of the educational investment and offering deferred and income-contingent payments. Using income survey datasets on Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) we first estimate how graduates' private return on educational investment is likely to be ...

Within-Group Earnings Inequality in Cross-National Perspective

In this research I assess within-group inequality—earnings inequality occurring among otherwise similar individuals based on observed characteristics—in a cross-national comparative perspective. While scholarly interest in the within-group portion of inequality has grown over the past 25 years, virtually all studies focus on the US case. The current research shifts focus by assessing within-group inequality ...

Well-Being in Germany: What Explains the Regional Variation?

This paper examines regional differences in subjective well-being (SWB) in Germany. Inferential statistics indicate a diminishing but still significant gap between East andWest Germany, but also differing levels of SWB within both parts of Germany. The observed regional pattern of life satisfaction reflects macroeconomic fundamentals, where labour market conditions play a dominant role. Differing levels ...

The Labor Market, Poverty and Social Policy in the Czech and Slovak Republics, 1990-1992: Data and Analyses