SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Einkommensunterschiede in der Mortalität in Deutschland – Ein empirischer Erklärungsversuch

In dieser Studie gehen wir der Frage nach, welche Faktoren die einkommensbedingten Unterschiede in der Mortalität erklären können. Auf der Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) werden ereignisanalytische Modelle der Mortalität ab dem Alter 65 geschätzt, die Auskunft über den Mediatoreffekt von acht Faktorenbündeln geben. Als Mediatoren zwischen Einkommen zum Alter 65 und Mortalität werden Bildung, ...

Distributive and Poverty-Reducing Effects of In-Kind Housing Benefits in Europe: With a Case Study for Germany

While cash housing benefits are generally included in household disposable income, the effect of social housing is not accounted for. This may provide a misleading picture of the impact of overall housing policies on inequality and poverty, as countries use different policies to help households meet their housing expenses. In this article, we present the first comprehensive study of the impact of in-kind ...

An Integrated Approach for Top-Corrected Ginis

Household survey data provide a rich information set on income, household context and demographic variables, but tend to under report incomes at the very top of the distribution. Administrative data like tax records offer more precise information on top incomes, but at the expense of household context details and incomes of non-filers at the bottom of the distribution. We combine the benefits of the ...

Child Poverty during the Recession in Germany

Measuring the Consistency of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Income Information in EU-SILC

The EU-wide survey “Statistics on Income and Living Conditions” (EU-SILC) is extremely important for international social science research and policy advice. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the data are of the highest quality and international comparability. This paper is aimed at identifying unexpected developments in income levels, income mobility, and inequality in the EU-SILC data between ...

Policy Goals in the Eyes of the Public: Preservation of the Liberal Democratic Order Remains Most Important

More than just a few politicians and scientists see an imbalance in policy’s primary orientation toward economic goals, especially the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In view of scientific and public discourses on prosperity, this report analyzes how voting-eligible Germans, the electorate, rated the significance of different policy areas in 2013 and again at the beginning of 2017. It is based on two ...

Improving the Quality of Care for the Elderly Is of High Relevance for all Age Groups: Six Questions for Marco Giesselmann

A Head-to-Head Comparison of Augmented Wealth in Germany and the United States

We provide levels of, compositions of, and inequalities in household augmented wealth – defined as the sum of net worth and pension wealth – for two countries: the United States and Germany. Pension wealth makes up a considerable portion of household wealth: about 48% in the United States and 61% in Germany. The higher share in Germany narrows the wealth gap between the two countries: While average ...

Terminal Decline in Well-Being Differs between Residents in East Germany and West Germany

Lifespan research has long been interested in how contexts shape individual development. Using the separation and later reunification of Germany as a kind of natural experiment we examine whether and how living and dying in the former East or West German context has differentially shaped late-life development of well-being. We apply multi-level growth models to annual reports of life satisfaction collected ...

Perceptions of Discrimination: What Do They Measure and Why Do They Matter?

This study addresses the difficulty in linking ethnic discrimination and integration outcomes of immigrants in empirical research. Many of the existing studies look at the relationship between perceived discrimination and integration, but most are based on cross-sectional data. We argue that perceived discrimination should not be taken as an accurate indicator of actual experiences of discrimination, ...