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The empirical literature on the relationship between age and well-being is characterised by an unusually persistent series of disagreements over data, method, and interpretation. Previous attempts to advance the discussion have involved different scholars’ specific prescriptions, which were often in near total contradiction to other scholars’ attempts to do the same. Instead, we use specification curve ...
Berlin:
DIW Berlin,
2025,
(SOEPpapers 1235)
| Kausik Chaudhuri, Alan Piper
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Personality traits have been confirmed to be associated with mental health, but their influence on the trajectories of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in China is not well understood. This study seeks to identify distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms and explore their relationship with the Big Five personality traits in China.
In:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
(2025),
| Weichao Chen, Wanren Wang, Xiaoyan Wang
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This paper examines the stability of self-control over time using nationally-representative longitudinal data from Australia. We track the same individuals between 2019 and 2023, a period encompassing one of the most disruptive global crisis in recent history: the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these extraordinary circumstances, self-control remained remarkably stable: its mean and distribution were unchanged, ...
Bonn:
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA),
2025,
(IZA DP No. 18270)
| Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, Anthony Lepinteur, Giorgia Menta
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Since the turn of the twenty-first century, subnational regions have become increasingly polarized with regard to anti-immigration attitudes. However, the reasons behind geographical changes over time are unclear. We argue that regional labor market risks are a key and overlooked factor driving residential choices and subsequent attitudinal change. We rely on georeferenced panel data from the German ...
In:
British Journal of Political Science
55 (2025),
| Denis Cohen, Sergi Pardos-Prado
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The rise of the knowledge economy draws workers towards concentrated skill clusters and creates political conflicts between urban high-opportunity areas and rural and suburban areas of lower dynamism. We advance the existing literature with a dynamic perspective by studying the political consequences of a structural pull into destinations that are typically more progressive than the places of origin. ...
In:
British Journal of Political Science
55 (2025),
| Valentina Consiglio, Thomas Kurer
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How do students’ earnings expectations differ by being the first in their family to attend university (FiF) and how do they affect field of study choice? We leverage unique survey and administrative data to document sizable gaps in expected earnings between FiF and non-FiF students. Our data can explain two-thirds of this gap, with the largest share attributable to field of study choice. We show that ...
Berlin:
DIW Berlin; SOEP,
2025,
(SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 1221)
| Katharina Adler, Fabian Kosse, Markus Nagler, Johannes Rincke
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We study the effect of finding a job through one's social contact on starting wages. Using combined SOEP-INKAR data for Germany and propensity score analysis - both matching and weighting - we document that referral hiring is associated with a wage penalty of 10%. This penalty is stable over time. Separating by the type of the social contact, we find that referrals from former colleagues are associated ...
Bielefeld:
Bielefeld University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics,
2025,
(Working Papers in Economics and Management No. 1-2025)
| Mariya Afonina, Anna Zaharieva
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This paper investigates whether individuals’ relative (status or positional) concerns are associated with their transitions from paid employment or inactivity to self-employment. The conjecture is that stress and anxiety arising from socio-economic comparisons may be motivating factors for individuals to establish their own businesses. We examine this using the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) dataset, ...
In:
Small Business Economics
(online first) (2025),
| Alpaslan Akay, Levent Yilmaz
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Overeducated workers are more productive and have higher wages in comparison to their adequately educated coworkers in the same jobs. However, they have lower wages than their similarly educated peers who are in correctly matched jobs. This study examines the hypotheses that overeducated workers sort into performance pay jobs as an adjustment mechanism and that performance pay enhances their wages. ...
In:
Education Economics
(online first) (2025), 1–21
| Mehrzad B. Baktash
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Transitioning into young adulthood often brings about significant changes in personality traits. However, the reasons behind these personality changes remain unclear. This study integrates insights from research on personality development and the psychology of social class to study how the construction of one’s social class identity in young adulthood might trigger changes in personality traits (i.e., ...
In:
Social Psychological and Personality Science
(online first) (2025),
| Anatolia Batruch, Manon A. van Scheppingen