Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Cost of Babylon - Linguistic Distance in Applied Economics

Linguistic distance, i.e. the dissimilarity between languages, is an important factor influencing international economic transactions such as migration or international trade flows by imposing hurdles for second language acquisition and increasing transaction costs. To measure these costs, we suggest using a new measure of linguistic distance. The Levenshtein distance is an easily computed and transparent ...

Linguistic barriers in the destination language acquisition of immigrants

There are various degrees of similarity between the languages of different immigrants and the language of their destination country. This linguistic distance is an obstacle to the acquisition of a language, which leads to large differences in the attainments of the language skills necessary for economic and social integration in the destination country. This study aims at quantifying the influence ...

Increasing uncertainty in old age in Germany? The development of social inequality in later life since the mid-1980s

The Causes of Seam Effects in Panel Surveys

Health and Wages - Panel data estimates considering selection and endogeneity

Health and Wages: Panel Data Estimates Considering Selection and Endogeneity

This paper complements previous studies on the effects of health on wages by addressing the problems of unobserved heterogeneity, sample selection, and endogeneity in one comprehensive framework. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we find the health variable to suffer from measurement error and a number of tests provide evidence that selection corrections are necessary. Good health ...

Drivers of renewable technology adoption in the household sector

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we undertake a simultaneous assessment of the importance of factors that are individually found to be significant for the adoption of renewable energy systems by households but are not yet tested jointly. These are sociodemographic and housing characteristics, environmental concern, personality traits, and economic factors; i.e. the expected costs of ...

Marriage, Gender, and Class: The Effects of Partner Resources on Unemployment Exit in Germany

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we find that cohabitation accelerates re-employment, whereas marriage increases the prospect of re-employment only for men. More specifically, the partner's labor market resources facilitate re-employment. Although partner income has no effect in absolute terms, unemployed men and women who were formerly minor earners refrain from re-entering ...

New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty

Why are Child Poverty Rates Higher in Britain than in Germany? A Longitudinal Perspective

We analyze why child poverty rates were much higher in Britain than in Western Germany during the 1990s, using a framework focusing on poverty transition rates. Child poverty exit rates were significantly lower, and poverty entry rates significantly higher, in Britain. We decompose these cross-national differences into differences in the prevalence of “trigger events” (changes in household composition, ...