Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The data quality concept of accuracy in the context of publicly shared data sets

Along with other data quality dimensions, the concept of accuracy is often used to describe the quality of a particular data set. However, its basic definition refers to the statistical properties of estimators, which can hardly be proved by means of just a single survey. This ambiguity can be resolved by assigning “accuracy” to survey processes that are known to affect these properties. In this contribution, ...

Continuing Vocational Training in Germany - A Comparative Study Using 3 German Data Sets

Using the life satisfaction approach to value daylight savings time transitions: Evidence from Britain and Germany

Daylight savings time represents a public good with costs and benefits. We provide the first comprehensive examination of the welfare effects of the spring and autumn transitions for the UK and Germany. Using individual-level data and a regression discontinuity design, we estimate the effect of the transitions on life satisfaction. Our results show that individuals in both the UK and Germany experience ...

The effects of smoking bans on self-assessed health: evidence from Germany

We examine the effects of smoking bans on self-assessed health in Germany taking into account heterogeneities by smoking status, gender and age. We exploit regional variation in the dates of enactment and dates of enforcement across German federal states. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, our difference-in-differences estimates show that non-smokers' health improves, whereas smokers ...

Childbirth and the Long-Term Division of Labour within Couples: How do Substitution, Bargaining Power, and Norms affect Parents’ Time Allocation in West Germany?

Parents display a highly gendered division of labour: fathers specialize in paid work and mothers take over most domestic work. However, the processes underlying the long-term effect of parenthood on a couple’s time allocation remain obscure, because previous research merely looks at the average effect of having children, neglecting possible interactions with the partners’ absolute and relative resources. ...

Domestic Work and the Wage Penalty for Motherhood in West Germany

Previous research suggests that household tasks prohibit women from unfolding their full earning potential by depleting their work effort and limiting their time flexibility. The present study investigated whether this relationship can explain the wage gap between mothers and nonmothers in West Germany. The empirical analysis applied fixed-effects models and used self-reported information on time use ...

Duration of maternity leave in Germany: A case study of nonparametric hazard models and penalized spines

The paper investigates maternity leave behavior in West Germany for females being employed between 1995 and 2006 using data from the German Socio Economic Panel. The observational study focuses on the investigation of individual and family-related covariate effects on the duration of maternity leave following first or second childbirth, respectively. Dynamic duration time models are used in which covariate ...

Who leaves and when? Selective outmigration of immigrants from Germany

The paper provides new evidence on the outmigration of foreign-born immigrants. We make use of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and employ penalised spline smoothing in the context of a Poisson-type Generalised Additive Mixed Model (GAMM), which enables us to incorporate bivariate interaction effects. A unique feature is the use of data from dropout studies to identify outmigration. For Turkish ...

Trends in gender differences in health at working ages among West and East Germans

Before 1990, Germany was divided for more than 40 years. While divided, significant mortality disparities between the populations of East and West Germany emerged. In the years following reunification, East German mortality improved considerably, eventually converging with West German levels. In this study, we explore changes in the gender differences in health at ages 20–59 across the eastern and ...

Policy Effects on Behaviour: Persuasion Effects in Electoral Campaigns – A Comparative Analysis of Household Panel Data

This study looks at the campaign effects of national elections, using household panel surveys from Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland. As household panels collect the party preferences of the same individuals on an annual basis, we are able to study individual dynamics over the electoral cycle. This makes it easier to distinguish between activation and persuasion effects than studying electoral ...