Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Decomposition of Well-Being Categories - An Application to Germany

In the paper, a combined approach is used to test for inequality differences of several well-being categories for a number of groups of persons. Hereby, total inequality is decomposed into within- and into between-group/category inequality (via a normalised coefficient of variation as the used inequality indicator). The decompositions are categorised into those referring to socio-demographic characteristics ...

Income Mobility – Curse or Blessing? Mobility in Social Security Earnings: Data on West-German Men since 1950

Descriptions and analyses of citizens’ or households’ income have a long tradition in economics. A large body of research has recognized that levels of income and how income is distributed are important contributors to the wealth of nations. Within the broader context of income and its distribution, there has also been a considerable amount of research on the process underlying income distribution ...

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