SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

First Time Around: Local Conditions and Multi-dimensional Integration of Refugees

We study the causal effect of local labor market conditions and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes (economic, linguistic, navigational, political, psychological, and social). Using a unique dataset on refugees, we leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were exogenously assigned to live in specific counties. ...

Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment

Modernization theorists’ ‘rising tide hypothesis’ predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification ...

Improving the Coverage of the Top-Wealth Population in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

We have developed and implemented a new sampling strategy to better represent very wealthy individuals in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our strategy is based on the empirical regularity that the very wealthy have at least part of their assets invested in businesses, and that businesses document shares of relevant shareholders in their books. Our results show that combined analysis of the ...

Mentoring Programs Support the Integration of Refugees

Over a million people sought asylum in Germany between 2014 and 2016. During this time, many Germans began volunteering in various ways to help refugees and mentorship pro- grams in particular gained significance. As this report shows, participating in a mentorship program has a positive impact on refugees: They improve their language skills and become more socially active. Mentors experience the relationship ...

Irrational Attention to Correlation in Selected Data

It is very rare that the causal link between actions and outcomes can be observed directly. Often, it is much easier to observe correlation. To derive causality from correlation, economists use elaborate techniques. However, little is known about individuals’ capabilities to infer from correlational data in their everyday lives. I test if individuals erroneously infer...

Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land

What are the long-term economic effects of a more equal distribution of wealth? We exploit variation in historical inheritance rules for land traversing political, linguistic, geological, and religious borders in Germany. In some German areas, inherited land was to be shared or divided equally among children, while in others land was ruled to be indivisible. Using a geographic regression...

Psychological Distress among Refugees in Germany: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Individual and Contextual Risk Factors and Potential Consequences for Integration Using a Nationally Representative Survey

Objectives Responding to the mental health needs of refugees remains a pressing challenge worldwide. We estimated the prevalence of psychological distress in a large refugee population in Germany and assessed its association with host country factors amenable to policy intervention and integration indicators.Design A cross-sectional and population- based secondary analysis of the 2017 wave of the IAB- ...

The Variability of Occupational Attainment: How Prestige Trajectories Diversified within Birth Cohorts over the Twentieth Century

This study develops and applies a framework for analyzing variability in individuals’ occupational prestige trajectories and changes in average variability between birth cohorts. It extends previous literature focused on typical patterns of intragenerational mobility over the life course to more fully examine intracohort differentiation. Analyses are based on rich life course data for men and women ...

De-routinization of Jobs and Polarization of Earnings: Evidence from 35 Countries

The job polarization hypothesis suggests a U-shaped pattern of employment growth along the earnings/skill distribution, which is driven by simultaneous growth in the employment of high-skill/high-earnings and low-skill/low-earnings occupations due to Routine-Biased Technological Change (RBTC) [Acemoglu and Autor, 2011]. An aspect of both high social and political relevance is the implications of job ...

Household Income and Wealth among People with a Migration Background: A Comparison of Switzerland and Germany