Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Who buffers income losses after job displacement? The role of alternative income sources, the family, and the state

Using survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) this paper analyses to what extent alternative income sources, reactions within the household context, and redistribution by the state attenuate earnings losses after job displacement. Applying propensity score matching and fixed effects estimations, we find high individual earnings losses after job displacement and only limited convergence. ...

Losing work, moving away? Regional mobility after job loss

Using German survey data, we investigate the relationship between involuntary job loss and regional mobility. Our results show that job loss has a strong positive effect on the propensity to relocate. We also analyse whether displaced workers who relocate to a different region after job loss are better able to catch up with non‐displaced workers in terms of labour market performance than those staying ...

Service Sector Employment in Germany and the UK

Job opportunities for whom? Labour market dynamics and service-sector employment growth in Germany and Britain

What Drives Reciprocal Behavior? The Optimal Provision of Incentives over the Course of Careers

We explore how inherent preferences for reciprocity and repeated interaction interact in an optimal incentive system. Developing a theoretical model of a long-term employment relationship, we first show that reciprocal preferences are more important when an employee is close to retirement. At earlier stages, repeated interaction is more important because more future rents can be used to provide incentives. ...

Loafing or Learning? The Demand for Informal Education

Job Design and Job Satisfaction – Empirical Evidence for Germany?

The present paper uses a large representative data set for Germany to analyze the effect of an enriched job design, which is characterized by a high degree of autonomy and multitasking, on job satisfaction. In our empirical approach we take job satisfaction as a proxy variable for workers’ utility following the approach suggested in Clark/Oswald (1996). We present clear evidence that modern job design ...

Smoothing Hazard Functions and Time-Varying Effects in Discrete Duration and Competing Risks Models

A Behaviouristic Approach for Measuring Poverty: The Decomposition Approach – Empirical Illustrations for Germany 1995-2009

In this paper an alternative approach with regard to poverty measurement is discussed: the so-called decomposition approach. This method differentiates between various social groups in the sense that for each group a separate poverty line is determined. E. g., household size might be a criterion for such a social differentiation. By doing this, the problem of traditional poverty measurement to refer ...

A New Framework of Measuring Inequality: Variable Equivalence Scales and Group-Specific Well-Being Limits – Sensitivity Findings for German Personal Income Distribution 1995-2009

The discussion paper examines sensitivity influences on the German personal income distribution in a time-series perspective and in a methodically broad manner. The author spins on the following “adjusting screws” of distributional analyses: (1) different kinds of equivalence scales, (2) different demarcations of income areas (in the sense of social classes), (3) different inequality indicators, and ...