Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Public health insurance, individual health, and entry into self-employment

We investigate the impact of a differential treatment of paid employees versus self-employed workers in a public health insurance system on the entry rate into self-employment. Health insurance systems that distinguish between the two sectors of employment create incentives or disincentives to start a business for different individuals. We estimate a discrete time hazard rate model of entry into self-employment ...

Precautionary and Entrepreneurial Savings – New Evidence from German Households

Various studies interpret the positive correlation between income risk and wealth as evidence of significant precautionary savings. However, these high estimates emerge from pooling non-entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, without controlling for heterogeneity. This article provides evidence for Germany based on representative panel data that includes private wealth balance sheets. Entrepreneurs, who face ...

Income Taxes and Entrepreneurial Choice: Empirical Evidence from Germany

Income taxes and entrepreneurial choice: empirical evidence from two German natural experiments

Does tax policy affect entrepreneurial choice? We use two tax reforms in Germany as “natural experiments”. These reforms reduced the marginal income tax rate for entrepreneurs with income above a certain threshold, with the exception of freelance professionals. The two conditions for belonging to the treatment group allow us to apply a “difference-in-difference-in-difference” identification strategy ...

Minimum Protection and Poverty in Europe. An Economic Analysis of the Subsidiarity Principle within EU Social Policy (Dissertation)

Persistent Poverty in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. A Model-based Approach Using Panel Data for the 1990s

Part-time Work and Childbirth in Europe: Scarring the Career or Meeting Working-time Preferences?

Working Part-Time in the British, German and Dutch Labour Market: Scarring for the Wage Career?

The paper studies the long-term effect of part-time employment on the wage career using panel data for three countries. The main idea is to study the possible 'scarring' effects of part-time employment on future hourly wages up to ten years later in the career. Fixed effects panel wage regressions show the existence of a part-time wage penalty for females in all three countries and for males ...

The impact of family structure during childhood on later-life attainment

Childhood family structure and schooling outcomes: Evidence for Germany

We analyze the impact on schooling outcomes of growing up in a non-intact family in Germany. We find that this experience is associated with worse outcomes according to estimates from models that do not control for possible correlations between common unobserved determinants of family structure and educational performance. Evidence of adverse effects emerges also when endogeneity is accounted for. ...