Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

A life-span perspective on life satisfaction

The German population is ageing due to decreasing birth rates and increasing life expectancy. To sustain the German pension system, legal retirement age is increased step by step to 67 years. This raises questions about how to enable and motivate older individuals to work that long. Hence, it is important to understand whether they represent a homogeneous group that can be addressed through specific ...

Reluctant to Reform? A Note on Risk-Loving Politicians and Bureaucrats

As from a political economy perspective, politicians often fail to implement structural reforms, we investigate if the resistance to reform is based on the differences in the risk preferences of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats. Based on the empirical results of a survey of the population in Germany, 175 members of the Federal German Parliament (Bundestag), and 106 officials (“bureaucrats”) from ...

Reluctant to Reform? A Note on Risk-Loving Politicians and Bureaucrats

From a political economy perspective, politicians often fail to implement structural reforms. In this contribution we investigate if the resistance to reform is based on the differences in the risk preferences of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats. Based on three surveys among the German electorate, 175 members of the Federal German Parliament and 106 officials from German ministries, this is not ...

Ethnic Identity and Educational Outcomes of German Immigrants and their Children

Identity can be an important driving force for educational performance. Immigrants and their children face the challenge of identifying with their host country’s culture. This paper examines whether young immigrants and their children who identify stronger with the German culture are more likely to increase their educational outcomes. We use a concept of ethnic identity which is designed to capture ...

Labor Market Integration of German Immigrants and their Children: Does Personality Matter?

Educational attainment, length of stay, differences in national background and language skills play an acknowledged important role for the integration of immigrants. But integration is also a social process, which suggests that psychological factors are relevant. This paper explores whether and to what extent immigrants and their children need to believe in their ability to control their own success. ...

Do Acquaintances and Friends Make Us Learn? Social Capital and Lifelong Learning in Germany

This paper examines the relationship between social capital and adult learning. We test this association empirically using measures of various types of social capital and adult learning based on the German Socioeconomic Panel. We use predetermined measures of social capital to exclude social skills or friends encountered during the adult education class. Fixed effects for latent underlying factors ...

Employment chances of immigrants and their children in Germany: does sense of personal control matter?

Labour market integration is a social process suggesting that personality traits are relevant. This paper explores whether immigrants with a higher belief in their ability to control outcomes tend to be more likely to be employed. This trait is known in psychology as the locus of control (LOC). I employ a model framework that allows LOC to depend on a set of observable determining variables. Results ...

Comparing Wealth - Data Quality of the HFCS

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) provides information about house-hold wealth (real and financial assets as well as liabilities) from 15 Euro-countries around the year 2010 (first wave). The survey will be the central dataset in this topic in the future. However, several aspects point to potential methodological constraints regarding cross-country comparability. Therefore the aim ...

Stability of Gosta Esping-Andersen's "The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism"

Sport participation of the elderly—the role of gender, age, and social class

The article provides an overview of the results of cross-sectional and longitudinal data sets concerning sport participation of the elderly in Germany with a focus on correlations of sport participation with gender, age, and social class. A tabular overview lists the most central studies with their study design and publications from 2000 onwards. Findings regarding the motivations for sport participation ...