Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Explaining differences in labour market transitions between panel and life-course data in West-Germany

Panel and life-course data are ideally suited to unravelling labour market dynamics, but their designs differ, with potential consequences for the estimated relationships. To gauge the extent to which these two data designs produce dissimilar transition rates and the causation thereof, we use the German Life History Study and the German Socio-Economic Panel. Life-course data in particular suffer from ...

Early Unemployment and Subsequent Career Complexity: A Sequence-Based Perspective

We aim to examine how previous unemployment affects future unemployment and career complexity over the life course. Theory suggests that unemployment triggers negative chains of ‘low-pay-no-pay’ circles. Using longitudinal data on men aged 18-64 from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we employ sequence-based methods to quantify career complexity and dynamic panel models to test our hypotheses about ...

The effect of unemployment on the mental health of spouses – Evidence from plant closures in Germany

Studies on health effects of unemployment usually neglect spillover effects on spouses. This study specifically investigates the effect of an individual's unemployment on the mental health of their spouse. In order to allow for causal interpretation of the estimates, it focuses on plant closure as entry into unemployment, and combines difference-in-difference and matching based on entropy balancing ...

Four Essays on Causal Inference in Health Economics (Dissertation)

Does job loss make you smoke and gain weight?

This paper estimates the effect of involuntary job loss on smoking behaviour and body weight using German SOEP data. Baseline non-smokers are more likely to start smoking due to job loss, while smokers do not intensify smoking. In particular, single individuals and those with lower health or socioeconomic status prior to job loss exhibit high rates of smoking initiation. Job loss increases body weight ...

Maternal labour supply and all-day primary schools in Germany

The economic literature provides vast evidence of how public provision of day care for children below school age increases the labour force participation of mothers. The causal effect of all-day schooling in primary school on maternal supply has been examined less since morning-only schooling is less common in developed countries. The present article summarises the findings of (mostly) economic studies ...

Weighting adjustments in the presence of non-coverage due to residential mobility in the German Microcensus-Panel

Beyond the Employment Agency: The Effect of Social Capital on the Duration of Unemployment

This paper relates an individual’s social capital and the length of unemployment spells of the very same individual. For this purpose, we analyze several facets of an agent’s social activities as determinants of her social capital. Social activities lead to social interactions within organizational settings, which build up social capital at the group level. Via social interactions an exchange of knowledge ...

Does Education Affect Attitudes Towards Immigration? Evidence from Germany

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and exploiting the staggered implementation of a compulsory schooling reform in West Germany, this article finds that an additional year of schooling lowers the probability of being very concerned about immigration to Germany by around six percentage points (20 percent). Furthermore, our findings imply significant spillovers from maternal education to ...

Early Career Experiences and Later Career Success: An International Comparison