Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Labour Market Mobility: Destabilization and Destandardization: For Whom? The Development of West German Job Mobility since 1984

We use the Socio-Economic Panel to study how the job-shift patterns of West German workers changed between 1984 and 2008, analyzing trends separately by gender, education, labor force experience, firm size, and sector. We document a considerable reduction in the rate of within-firm job changes, especially for men in large companies and with limited labor force experience, which we interpret as evidence ...

Getting more unequal: Rising labor market inequalities among low-skilled men in West Germany

During recent decades, earnings differentials between educational groups have risen in most advanced economies. While these trends are well-documented, much less is known about inequality trends within educational groups. To address this issue, we study changes in labor market inequalities among low-skilled men in West Germany. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we show that both risks ...

The Changing Wage Distribution in Germany between 1985 and 2006

In this paper the changes in the wage distribution in (West-)Germany between 1985 and 2006 are analysed. The theoretical framework is based on the literature on skill-biased technological change (SBTC) and on structural theory. Analyses draw on descriptive measures of the development of wage inequality among blue- and white-collar workers as well as on regression analyses of individual and structural ...

Actuarial Adjustments, Retirement Behaviour and Worker Heterogeneity

The behavioural response with respect to actuarial adjustments in the German public pension system is analysed. The introduction of actuarial adjustments serves as a source of exogenous variation to estimate discrete time transition rates into retirement. The analysis is conducted on administrative data from social security records and on survey data in a comparative scenario. Probability mass points ...

The Effect of Benefit Reductions on the Retirement Age: The Heterogeneous Response of Manual and Non‐Manual Workers

I estimate the effect of benefit reductions on the timing of retirement. The introduction of actuarial adjustments in the German public pension system serves as a source of exogenous variation to estimate discrete time transition rates into retirement for individuals of age 60–66. Responses to benefit reductions are elaborated separately for manual and non-manual workers. On average, individuals postpone ...

Bridge Unemployment in Germany: Response in Labour Supply to an Increased Early Retirement Age

This study examines an increase in the early retirement age from 60 to 63 for the group of older unemployed men in Germany. As consequence of this policy reform, the time to retirement is increased from the perspective of recently unemployed individuals and therefore serves as a source of exogenous variation. We estimate continuous time hazard models for individuals at risk of leaving the state unemployment ...

Inequality of Opportunity in Retirement Age – The Role of Physical Job Demands

We quantify differences in the retirement age between manual and non-manual workers and evaluate these differences in the context of the literature on equality of opportunity. The focus is on the question how individual background during childhood transmits through physical demands of occupations on retirement ages. Individual retrospective data from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used to analyse ...

Monitoring Economic Performance, Quality of Life and Sustainability. Joint Report as Requested by the Franco-German Ministerial Council

Overview of International Household Panel Studies

Decreasing Wage Mobility in Germany

Using data from the German Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 1984 to 2007, this paper analyses the amount, the development and the explanations of wage mobility, as well as volatility in West Germany, measured by ranks in the wage distribution. Individual wage mobility decreased between 1984/1987 and 2004/2007, while inequality increased steadily from the mid 1990s onwards. Mobility is highest ...