Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Does income moderate the satisfaction of becoming a parent? In Germany it does and depends on education

We investigate the role of individual labor income as a moderator of parental subjective well-being trajectories before and after the birth of the first child in Germany. Analyzing the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP), we found that income matters negatively for parental life satisfaction after the first birth, though with important differences by education and gender. In particular, among ...

The dynamics of solo self-employment: persistence and transition to employership

This study examines dynamics of solo self-employment. In particular, we investigate the extent of true state dependence and cross state dependence, i.e., whether experiencing solo selfemployment causally affects the probability of becoming an employer in the future. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to estimate dynamic multinomial logit models. Our results show that the extent of true ...

Religious Attendance Buffers the Impact of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence from Germany

This research used longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine whether religious attendance buffers the impact of unemployment on life satisfaction. Fixed effects models following 5,446 individuals up to three years after the transition to unemployment yielded two central findings. First, higher frequency of religious attendance was associated with smaller drops in ...

Subjective Completion Beliefs and the Demand for Post-Secondary Education

The outcome of pursuing an upper or post-secondary education degree is uncertain. A student might not complete a chosen degree for a number of reasons, such as insufficient academic preparation or financial constraints. Thus, when considering whether to invest in post-secondary education, students must factor their probability of completing the degree into their decision. We study the role of this ...

Predicting fixed effects in panel probit models

We present a method to estimate and predict fixed effects in a panel probit model when N is large and T is small, and when there is a high proportion of individual units without variation in the binary response. Our approach builds on a bias-reduction method originally developed by Kosmidis and Firth (2009) for cross-section data. In contrast to other estimators, our approach ensures that predicted fixed ...

An econometric model of healthcare demand with nonlinear pricing

From 2004 to 2012, the German social health insurance levied a co-payment for the first doctor visit in a calendar quarter. We develop a new model for estimating the effect of such a co-payment on the individual number of visits per quarter. The model combines a one-time increase in the otherwise constant hazard rate determining the timing of doctor visits with a difference-in-differences strategy ...

The evolution of the gender wage gap

Bowling alone or bowling at all? The effect of unemployment on social participation

This article examines the impact of unemployment on social participation using German panel data. We find negative and lasting effects for public social activities but also a retreat of individuals into private life. Issues of selection and endogeneity are addressed by using plant closures as exogenous entries into unemployment. Social norms and labour market prospects are shown to be relevant for ...

Unemployment as a Social Norm Revisited: Novel Evidence from German Counties

Unemployed individuals may regain identity utility through coping strategies, which however vary with age and gender. Using highly detailed German county level data, we test whether the social norm effect of unemployment is age-dependent. The wellbeing differential between the unemployed and the employed is found to increase with the local unemployment rate at the beginning of the working life but ...

The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation of Spouses: Evidence from Plant Closures in Germany

This paper estimates the effect of an individual’s unemployment on the level of social participation of their spouse. Using German panel data, it is shown that unemployment has a strong negative effect on public social activities of both directly and indirectly affected spouses. Private social activities of either spouse, however, are only found to increase, if the indirectly affected spouse is not ...