SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Understanding Trends in the German Income Distribution: 2001-2019 (with Robin Jessen)

In this paper we document trends in inequality in earnings and disposable household income for men and women in Germany from 2001 to 2019. We find that males at the lower half of the earnings distribution have lower earnings in 2019 than in 2001. In contrast, female earnings have increased throughout the distribution. Households and the welfare state has cushioned much---but not all---of the...

Unveiling financial dependency: The motherhood penalty on individual poverty risk within couples in Germany, 1990–2019

Typically, poverty risk is assessed at the household level, neglecting within-couple income inequality and the role of individual characteristics in vulnerability to income poverty. This paper uses SOEP data and a quasi-experimental event study design to investigate poverty dynamics within couples over an 8-year period around the first birth. It follows partnered women (N=1,174) and men (N=1,137)...

Did Religious Well-Being Benefits Converge or Diverge During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany?

A large body of literature highlights the benefits of being religious in terms of subjective well-being. We examine changes to these so-called religious well-being benefits during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and address the role of (formal and informal) social integration when explaining these changes. We empirically test two contrasting scenarios: The first scenario predicts ...

Wealthy, Wealthier, Wealthiest – The Role of Inheritances and Parental Background for the Structure of the Wealth Distribution and Top Wealth

How is wealth created and reproduced within the German society? What role do inheritances and parental background play for top wealth holdings? SOEP-P is a new and worldwide unique sample of wealthy individuals in Germany. It comprises more than 1,100 millionaires (with the richest person having a net wealth of more than 130 million Euros) and is fully integrated into the general SOEP household...

Equal Waiting Times for All? Empirical Evidence for Elective Surgeries in the Austrian Public Healthcare System

Objectives This study analyses waiting times for elective surgeries and potential determinants, including supplementary private health insurance, visits in the operating physician's private practice and informal payments for faster treatment. Study design Retrospective patient questionnaire survey. Methods The survey was conducted in eleven Austrian rehabilitation centres in 2019. Data was analysed ...

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 repeating a benchmark study and adding WfH to the explanatory variables. Moreover, we implement an instrumental variables estimation based on industry-specific levels of WfH-capacity. The transmission channels seem to work ...

Measuring Historical Inequality in Germany

This article surveys the measurement of historical wealth and income inequality in Germany. We discuss the underlying data sources, the challenges they pose, and the opportunities they create. We also identify two promising avenues for future research. First, we argue that the geographic granularity of German historical statistics provides researchers with the opportunity to investigate the causes ...

The Keys to the House - How Wealth Transfers Stratify Homeownership Opportunities

This study investigates how actual and anticipated intergenerational wealth transfers (i.e., inter-vivo gifts and inheritances) contribute to social stratification in the transition to homeownership. Utilizing discrete-time survival analysis on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N=13,018), we find that individuals whose parents were manual workers or service workers are less likely to ...

The German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP): Theoretical Background, Instruments, Survey Design, and Analytical Potential

The German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP) is a probability-based self-administered longitudinal study in a mixed-mode design (PAPI and CAWI) that is jointly carried out by the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The aim of the study is to capture the diversity of social cohesion in Germany from multiple perspectives, particularly regarding the extent to ...

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