Publikationen mit SOEP-Daten: SOEPlit

Does Money Change Who You Are? Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Wage Increases on Personality

Using the 2015 introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany as a quasi-experiment, I investigate the effects of wage increases on personality. The degree to which each worker’s wage is intended to be affected by the reform is used as an instrument for the relative increase in the worker’s hourly wage in a two-stage least squares estimation based on nationally representative panel data (N = 1,955 ...

Hohe Energiepreise: Ärmere Haushalte werden trotz Entlastungspaketen stärker belastet als reichere Haushalte

Durch den russischen Angriff auf die Ukraine sind die Energiepreise sprunghaft gestiegen. Bereits zuvor wurden Strom, Gas und Kraftstoffe sukzessive teurer. Die privaten Haushalte in Deutschland werden dadurch erheblich belastet. Zwei Entlastungspakete hat die Regierungskoalition dazu geschnürt. Dennoch drohen den privaten Haushalten mittelfristig reale Einkommensverluste von durchschnittlich 2,1 Prozent, ...

Essays in Applied Microeconomics

This dissertation consists of three chapters in the field of applied microeconomics with a focus on labor economics and behavioral economics. It covers various topics and methods. A common theme is the importance of decisions. Our economy is the result of innumerable decisions made by individual and institutional agents. The decisions are constraint by resources and differ in complexity and impact. ...

Dynamic Effects of Co-Ethnic Networks on Immigrants’ Economic Success

In this paper we investigate how co-ethnic networks affect the economic success of immigrants. Using longitudinal data of immigrants in Germany and including a large set of fixed effects and pre-migration controls to address the possible endogeneity of initial location, we find that immigrants in districts with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed soon after arrival. This advantage ...

Grading in Secondary Schools in Germany – The Impact of Social Origin and Gender

In the German school system, grades are the essential means of performance feedback and assignment. However, little research has been conducted on the factors that determine grades in addition to competencies, and existing findings are poorly replicated. Using data from the representative IQB Trends in Student Performance 2015 survey, our analysis combined a variety of personal and structural characteristics ...

Wohlstand für alle? Die Entwicklung einkommensschwacher Haushalte seit 2005

Im Vergleich zu den frühen 1990er Jahren ist die Einkommensungleichheit zwischen Haushalten in Deutschland heute auf einem deutlich höheren Niveau und hat zu lebhaften Diskussionen über die Notwendigkeit ihrer Bekämpfung geführt. In dieser Debatte werden mittlerweile auch Stimmen laut, die betonen, dass die Einkommensungleichheit seit 2005 stabil geblieben ist. Dabei herrscht sowohl im politischen ...

The fundamental role of tax systems in the relationship between workfare and inequality in the lower half of the income distribution

In recent decades, many affluent democracies moved from traditional welfare states to workfare systems. Meanwhile, income inequality developed differently across countries, even when they made apparently similar shifts from welfare to workfare. It is a matter of debate why welfare state change had such heterogeneous consequences across countries. This article proposes that different incentives to take ...

Wer gewinnt? Wer verliert? Die Absicherung von Lebenseinkommen durch Familie und Staat

Disparities in labour market and income trends during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from Germany

Germany’s labour market has weathered the COVID-19 crisis quite well. The unemployment rate increased by less than one percentage point between the last pre-crisis quarter Q4 2019 and its peak in Q3 2020 (from 3.2% to 4.1%); the employment rate fell by less than five percentage points (from 75.7% to 71.1%). Both indicators have since returned to their pre-crisis levels (OECD, forthcoming[1]). The widespread ...

Informing students about college: Increasing enrollment using a behavioral intervention?

This study sheds light on whether the provision of information on costs, financing options, and returns of college education results in higher application and college enrollment rates. Based on a behavioral intervention with more than 1,000 high school students in Germany, we provide evidence that the provision of such information increases college application and enrollment rates, in particular for ...