Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Work-related internal migration and changes in mental and physical health: A longitudinal study using German data

Work-related internal migration can be associated with various labor market benefits such as improved career opportunities. However, benefits can be offset by specific burdens (relocation stress) which, in turn, can lead to adverse health outcomes. These burdens include organizing the move, difficulties in maintaining social relationships, homesickness or feelings of displacement. However, there is ...

The Health of Catholic Order Members: A Comparison with the General Population (Chapter 3.1)

Diverging Trends in Single-Mother Poverty across Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom: Toward a Comprehensive Explanatory Framework

To explain single-mother poverty, existing research has either emphasized individualistic, or contextual explanations. Building on the prevalences and penalties framework (Brady et al. 2017), we advance the literature on single-mother poverty in three aspects: First, we extend the framework to incorporate heterogeneity among single mothers across countries and over time. Second, we apply this extended ...

Income Comparison and Happiness within Households

This paper applies the German Socio-Economic Panel to analyse the effect of within household income comparison on individual life satisfaction. Our estimates indicate, a primary breadwinner wife decreases spousal individual happiness by roughly nine per cent. To state the economic significance, a €70,000 increase in external, peer reference income corresponds to a similar individual happiness decrease. ...

Care and careers: Gender (in)equality in unpaid care, housework and employment

This article examines whether reducing care and housework duties and redistributing them within different-sex couples could further enhance gender equality on the labor market in terms of labor market participation for different employment types and actual working hours. Women around the world perform the majority of unpaid care and housework, with a large and persistent gap to men. Most research explains ...

Foreign Accents in the Early Hiring Process: A Field Experiment on Accent-Related Ethnic Discrimination in Germany

Based on a field experiment conducted in Germany between October 2014 and October 2015, this article focuses on the disadvantages associated with the presence of a foreign accent in the early hiring process, when applicants call in response to a job advertisement to ask whether the position is still available. We examine whether a foreign accent influences employers’ behaviors via productivity considerations ...

Work, divorce and post-marital living arrangements in Germany: the role of stress, couples’ division of labor and alternative partnerships

Divorce rates in Germany have been increasing since the mid-1960s, however, over the last 15 years this trend appear to be slowing. In accordance, female labor force participation accelerated and is known to be correlated with divorce at the macro level. A common notion – also reflected in Becker’s theoretical model of the new home economics and its related independence thesis – is that women’s participation ...

Educational Selectivity and Immigrants’ Labour Market Performance in Europe

This article depicts the selectivity profiles of first-generation immigrants of multiple origins in 18 European destinations and investigates whether educational selectivity is relevant to their labour market performance. The theoretical account starts from the premise that the relative position individuals occupy in the educational distribution of their origin country represents—frequently unmeasured—characteristics ...

The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Norms: Why and How Adolescent Males with Working Mothers Matter for Female Labour Market Outcomes

Social norms are put forward as a prominent explanation for the changing labour supply decisions of women. This paper studies the intergenerational transmission of these norms, examining how they affect subsequent female labour supply decisions, taking into account not only the early socialization of women but also that of their partner. Using large representative panel data sets from West Germany, ...

Day Care Centers: Family Expenditures Increased Significantly at Some Points between 1996 and 2015

Private household expenditures on child care in centers have significantly risen: from an average of 98 euros per month in 2005 to just under 171 euros in 2015 for a child under three and for children three and older (“Kindergarten”1 age group), from 71 to 97 euros in the period between 1996 and 2015. At the same time, more and more households are completely exempt from paying fees for day care. However, ...