Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Importance of Personality Traits for Destination-Language Acquisition: Evidence for Refugees in Germany

We analyze the role of personality traits in destination-language proficiency among recent refugees in Germany. While personality traits have been shown to predict educational outcomes, they have been largely overlooked for immigrants’ language acquisition. We extend a well-established model of destination-language proficiency and assume that personality traits’ effects manifest through the channels ...

The role of different school organizational models in the psychological adaptation of refugee adolescents

Given the high number of refugee children and adolescents around the globe, it is critical to determine conditions that foster their adaptation in the receiving country. This study investigated the psychological adaptation of recently arrived adolescent refugees in Germany. We focused on whether psychological adaptation reflects the organizational approach taken by the school that refugee adolescents ...

An Econometric Analysis of Environmental Phenomena

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen von Luftverschmutzung und Naturkatastrophen auf verschiedene Aspekte der menschlichen Umwelt. Im ersten Abschnitt konzentriere ich mich auf die Luftverschmutzung. Konkret stelle ich in Kapitel 2 fest: Die stündlichen Veränderungen der Luftverschmutzung wirken sich über zwei verschiedene Wege auf die Kriminalität aus, und zwar über physiologische ...

Social Contacts of Refugees

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 ...