Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Sample selection models for count data in R

We provide a detailed hands-on tutorial for the R package SemiParSampleSel (version 1.5). The package implements selection models for count responses fitted by penalized maximum likelihood estimation. The approach can deal with non-random sample selection, flexible covariate effects, heterogeneous selection mechanisms and varying distributional parameters. We provide an overview of the theoretical ...

Trade-Off Between Consumption Growth and Inequality: Theory and Evidence for Germany

This paper examines the structure and evolution of consumption inequality. Once heterogeneous agents relate their neighbors' consumption to their own, consumption volatility and inequality are affected. The model predicts a positive relationship between the group specific average consumption growth and within-group inequality, which is empirically confirmed using survey data from the German Socio-Economic ...

Consumption Growth and Inequality in a Heterogeneous Agent Model: Theory and Evidence from German Data

This paper studies the structure and dynamics of consumption and consumption growth inequality. The theoretical framework is a heterogeneous agent model with stochastic labor endowments, where the group mean consumption serves as consumption externality. The main finding is that households' preferences affect the within-group inequality through asset holding decisions: it decreases with groups' ...

Take Me “Home”: Determinants of Return Migration Among Germany’s Elderly Immigrants

This paper examines the determinants of return migration as foreign-born individuals approach old age in Germany. Return migration in later life engages a different set of conditions than return migration earlier on, including framing return as a possible retirement strategy. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, results suggest that later-life emigrants are “negatively selected” on the basis ...

Getting Older, Getting Poorer? A Study of the Earnings, Pensions, Assets and Living Arrangements of Older People in Nine Countries

The impact of music on educational attainment

This paper analyzes the impact of music practice on educational outcomes. Estimates from multivariate regressions and individual fixed effects suggest that childhood musical activity—either playing an instrument or singing—relates positively to educational achievements in adolescence. The magnitude and significance of the estimated music coefficients for different music indicators is robust when increasing ...

Participation in Continuing Vocational Training in Germany between 1989 and 2008

Who participates in continuing vocational training and who does not? This central question in research on continuing vocational training gains in significance the more the importance of lifelong learning is postulated. On the basis of the SOEP data collection periods of 1989, 1993, 2000, 2004 and 2008, I will describe participation in continuing vocational training in Germany between 1989 and 2008, ...

Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in Germany: Moving with Natives or Stuck in their Neighbourhoods

In this paper, I analyze intergenerational mobility of immigrants and natives in Germany. Using the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP), I find intergenerational elasticities that range from 0.19 to 0.26 for natives and from 0.37 to 0.40 for immigrants. These elasticity estimates are lower than typically found for the U.S. and imply higher mobility in Germany than in the U.S. However, as in the U.S., ...

Are All Single Mothers the Same? Evidence from British and West German Women’s Employment Trajectories

Single motherhood is often discussed as a reason for women’s non-employment. This article investigates women’s employment trajectories during and after single motherhood in the welfare state contexts of Britain and West Germany. Sequence analysis is applied to longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (N¼329) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (N¼378), comparing patterns in employment ...

Understanding Differences in Labour Market Attachment of Single Mothers in Great Britain and West Germany

This paper investigates the relationships between single mothers’ demographic and socio-economic circumstances and differences in their labour market attachment in Great Britain and West Germany. Single mothers’ employment is a key issue in current policy debates in both countries, as well as in research on the major challenges of contemporary welfare states. The heterogeneity of the group of women ...