SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Stock Market Participation, Work from Home, and Inequality

Stock market participation among working household heads jumped upwards in 2020 - in Germany by about 25 %. A major cause is the required use of work from home (WfH). We show this by adding WfH to a large set of explanatory variables. Moreover, we implement an instrumental variables estimation based on industry-specific levels of WfH-capacity. The transmission channels seem to work via increased available ...

Income Distribution: Signs of a Trend Reversal In the Poverty Risk; Single Parents Less Frequently at Risk of Poverty

Despite high inflation, the real gross hourly wages of employees grew by around 15 percent from 1995 to 2022. In particular, the lowest wage decile caught back up to all other deciles following a sharp drop in real wages. At the same time, the low-wage sector has shrunk by nearly five percentage points since 2007, and by even more in the east of Germany (14 percent). In 2022, 18.5 percent of employees ...

Poverty risk decreases - especially in eastern Germany and among single parents

Unequal Estate Division for Wealth Perpetuation: Portfolios, Primogeniture, and Patrilineality (with Daria Tisch and Manuel Schechtl)

While inequalities in inter-vivos gifts and bequests between families are widely recognized as key drivers of wealth inequality, less is known about the unequal transmission of wealth within families. This study addresses this gap by asking: (1) To what extent are estates unequally divided? (2) How do estate portfolios, primogeniture, and patrilineality shape unequal estate division? (3) What is...

Poverty and Inequality in the Federal Republic of Germany

Why is the Federal Republic of Germany a case of interest at all to be considered in a handbook on poverty and inequality? Three reasons come foremost to mind. First, Germany holds a dominant economic and political position within the European Union, making changes in poverty and inequality highly significant beyond its borders. Second, Germany is often considered a prime example of a "coordinated ...

The Educational Wealth Divide in Europe: Post-Secondary Enrollment Gaps Across Parental Wealth Components and Countries

Parental wealth is a crucial dimension of socioeconomic status (SES) and plays a significant role in the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage. Previous research on the topic has been limited to a small number of countries, and findings on the relationship between parental wealth and educational attainment are hardly comparable across institutional contexts. Furthermore, the specific ...

Post-Migration Stress Mediates Associations Between Potentially Traumatic Peri-Migration Experiences and Mental Health Among Middle Eastern Refugees in Germany

Background On their way to host countries, refugees are often exposed to severe adversity, including cumulative experiences of fraud, extortion, robbery, detention, and shipwrecks, as well as prolonged, life-threatening small boat crossings. However, little research has examined the long-term impact of such peri-migration stressors on subsequent stress and mental health after arrival. This study explored ...

Refugees Are Feeling Increasingly Unwelcome and Perceiving Discrimination in the Labor and Housing Markets

The sentiment among refugees in Germany has changed significantly: Using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data from 2016 to 2023, it can be seen that refugees have been feeling increasingly unwelcome since 2018, while their concerns about xenophobia have grown since 2019. In addition, cross-sectional data from 2022 refugees’ subjective experiences of discrimination in the workplace and when searching for ...

Loneliness in Germany: Low-Income Earners at Highest Risk of Loneliness

Loneliness poses a serious health risk: Along with negatively impacting life quality, it can even shorten the life span. This Weekly Report investigates loneliness in Germany using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data from 2021 on loneliness. The analyses highlight the prevalence of three facets of loneliness (aloneness, isolation, exclusion) as well as regional differences and high-risk groups. The results ...

The Long-Term Implications of Destruction During the Second World War on Private Wealth in Germany

By the end of the Second World War, an estimated 20% of the West German housing stock had been destroyed. Building on a theoretical life-cycle model, this paper examines the persistent consequences of the war for individual wealth across generations. As our empirical basis, we link a unique historical dataset on the levels of wartime destruction in 1739 West German cities with micro data on individual ...