Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Data Analysis Using Stata, Second Edition

Workplace training in Germany and its impact on subjective job security: Short- or long-term returns?

Based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, this article analyses the effects of workplace training in Germany on subjective job security. Using fixed-effects models, this article tests whether workplace training has positive effects on perceived job security, and if so, whether the returns are of a short- or long-term nature. The results confirm a positive effect of workplace training ...

Rising Wage Dispersion, After All! The German Wage Structure at the Turn of the Century

The Aftermath of Reunification: Sectoral Transition, Gender, and Rising Wage Inequality in East Germany

This article traces the evolution of the East German wage structure throughout the transition period 1992–2001. Wage dispersion has generally been rising. This increase occurred predominantly in the lower part of the wage distribution for women and in the upper part for men. Moreover, the sectoral transition affected female workers to a much larger extent than their male counterparts. A sequential ...

Sick of your Job? – Negative Health Effects from Non-Optimal Employment

In an empirical study based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, the effect of job quality on individual health is analyzed. Extending previous studies methodologically to estimate unbiased effects of job satisfaction on individual health, it can be shown that low job satisfaction affects individual health negatively. In a second step, the underlying forces of this broad effect are disentangled. ...

Inept or Badly Matched? — Effects of Educational Mismatch in the Labor Market

Negative wage effects of educational mismatch have become a stylized fact. Whether these are explained by differences in unobserved productivity or poor matching is still to be answered conclusively. In an empirical analysis based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the International Adult Literacy Survey, a broad econometric strategy is applied to solve the problem of unobserved heterogeneity ...

Dead Man Walking: The Impact of Over-Education on Life Satisfaction

The negative effects of unemployment on wellbeing have been clearly documented in the economics literature. However some current employees may move directly into a new job, never experiencing an unemployment spell, yet find themsleves in a new job underutilising their skills or education ("downchanges"). We assess empirically, whether downchanges are similar to unemployment spells, in that ...

(Why) are immigrants unhappy?

Recent studies suggest that migrants may be less satisfied with their ‘new’ lives than members of the host population and worry that this may be driven by cultural factors, such as feelings of not belonging. Motivated by this concern, this paper analyses the life satisfaction of immigrants once settled in the host country. We rely on the German Socio-Economic Panel’s immigrant sample for the years ...

An Empirical Note on Religiosity and Social Trust using German Survey Data

In this empirical research note, we use a large scale German household survey data set to analyze the correlation between religiosity and social trust. Religiosity takes into account religious affiliations (Catholic, Protestant, other Christian, Muslim/Islam, other religions, none) and the frequency of church attendance. In order to measure social trust, we use three outcome variables (willingness ...

Reservation Wages and the Wage Flexibility Puzzle

Wages are only mildly cyclical, implying that shocks to labour demand have a larger short-run impact on unemployment rather than wages, at odds with the quantitative predictions of the canonical search model – even if wages are only occasionally renegotiated. We argue that one source of the wage flexibility puzzles is plausibly the model for the determination of reservation wages, and consider an alternative ...