SOEP-Suche

Optimal Taxation: The Design of Child Related Cash- and In-Kind-Benefits

This paper contributes to the debate about the optimal design of tax-transfer systems. Based on the theory of optimal taxation, combined with microsimulation and microeconometric techniques we derive the welfare function which makes the current German tax and transfer system for single women optimal. Furthermore, we compare the welfare function conditional on the presence and age of children and asses ...

Can Child Care Policy Encourage Employment and Fertility? Evidence from a Structural Model

We develop a structural model of female employment and fertility which accounts for intertemporal feedback effects between these two outcomes. To identify the effect of financial incentives on employment and fertility we exploit variation in the tax and transfer system, which differs by employment state and number of children. Specifically, we simulate in detail the effects of the tax and transfer ...

Naturalisation and Investments in Children's Human Capital: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This paper assesses educational attainment of immigrant children, in particular evaluating whether naturalised parents invest more in their children's human capital than non-naturalised parents. Findings of the literature indicate that citizenship is associated with lower return migration probability. Since the returns to investments in (country-specific) human capital increase with the duration ...

Naturalisation and on-the-job training: evidence from first-generation immigrants in Germany

This paper empirically analyses the effect of naturalisation on on-the-job training (OJT) participation among first-generation immigrants in Germany. OJT is associated with improved labour market outcomes and provides therefore an indicator for labour market integration. Naturalisation is assumed to act as a signal of the employee’s commitment to the host country and may thus increase employers’ likelihood ...

Winners and Losers - Transformational Outcomes in a Comparative Context

Continuous Changes - Different Variations: Income distribution and income dynamics in three societies

Persistently High Wealth Inequality in Germany

According to current analyses based on the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the total net assets of German households in 2012 amounted to 6.3 trillion euros. Almost 28 percent of the adult population had no or even negative net wealth. On average, individual net assets in 2012 totaled over 83,000 euros, slightly more than ten years previously. The degree of wealth inequality also remained virtually ...

Real Net Worth of Households in Germany Fell between 2003 and 2013

Studies indicating the development of household wealth in Germany are typically based on nominal values and do not take account of price rises and thus the actual purchasing power of those assets. DIW Berlin took inflation into account in a recent evaluation and concluded that the average net worth of households in Germany decreased in real terms by almost 15 percent from 2003 to 2013. This figure, ...

Measuring Cognitive Ability

The assessment of cognitive abilities is critical in large-scale survey studies that aim at elucidating the longitudinal interplay between the individual’s cognitive potential and socio-economic variables. The format of such studies calls for assessment methods that not only can be efficiently administered, but also show a high level of (psychometric) measurement quality. In consideration of recent ...

The Effect of Maternal Education on Offspring's Mental Health

We estimate the causal effect of maternal education on the mental health of mother’s children in late adolescence and adulthood. Theoretical considerations are ambiguous about a causal effect of maternal education on children’s mental health. To identify the causal effect of maternal education, we exploit exogenous variation in maternal years of schooling, caused by a compulsory schooling law reform ...