Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

East German Incomes Continue to Rise - But Renewed Increase in Poverty

Low income dynamics in Unified Germany

Income, poverty and dynamics in Germany

Quality of life and inequality (Chapter 7)

The term ‘quality of life research’ refers to a general theoretical framework rather than to a specific theory of welfare or well-being. Most of the various definitions and conceptions of quality of life within this framework cite the multidimensional character of living conditions. In this respect, they differ from views of economic welfare that are primarily income-or GDP-driven. Another broadly ...

Combating Poverty in Europe: The German Welfare Regime in Practice (Studies in cash and care)

Income Groups and Types of Employment in Germany since 1995

This report examines how income groups and forms of employment in Germany have changed in the past two decades. Since the mid-1990s, inequality in disposable household income in Germany has generally increased. This trend was in effect until 2005. While fewer people had disposable incomes in the median range, the proportion of the population at both tails of the income distribution increased. At the ...

A Macroeconomic Model for the Evaluation of Labor Market Reforms

The empirical literature documents a substantial and rising amount of labor income risk, in particular, employment risk. In most countries, the government provides insurance against this type of risk through the payment of unemployment benefits. Other things being equal, the provision of unemployment insurance increases the welfare of risk-averse households. However, unemployment benefits also discourage ...

Labor Market Risk in Germany

This paper uses annual data drawn from the GSOEP to estimate individual earnings risk (labor market risk) in Germany for the period 1983-2012. The econometric specification of the earnings process allows for transitory shocks and permanent shocks to individual earnings. We find that both the transitory component and the permanent component of earnings risk have been rising in West Germany in the 1990s ...

Full Time or Part Time? The Contradictory Integration of the East German Female Labour Force in Unified Germany

Can Raising Instructional Time Crowd Out Student Pro-Social Behaviour? Evidence From Germany

We study whether raising instructional time can crowd out student pro-social behaviour. To this end, we exploit a large educational reform in Germany that has raised weekly instructional time for high school students by 12.5% as a quasi-natural experiment. We find that this rise has a negative and sizeable effect on volunteering, both at the intensive and at the extensive margin. It also affects political ...