Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Rent Indices for Housing in West Germany 1985 to 1998

Does better education cause higher income?

While the positive influence of higher education on income has been repeatedly confirmed, the linking channel can be ambiguous. Within the framework of estimating the effect of income on life satisfaction, various sources of endogeneity caused by joint determination are addressed and the earnings equation is reconsidered, too: We cast doubt on the hypothesis of the direct influence of educational achievement ...

Social Causation Versus Health Selection in the Life Course: Does Their Relative Importance Differ by Dimension of SES?

A person’s socioeconomic status (SES) can affect health (social causation) and health can affect SES (health selection). The findings for each of these pathways may depend on how SES is measured. We study (1) whether social causation or health selection is more important for overall health inequalities, (2) whether this differs between stages of the life course, and (3) between measures of SES. Using ...

Inequality of Personal Income in the Enlarged EU: The Role of the Welfare States, Regional Cohesion Policies and Economic Integration

The spatial structure of income inequality in the enlarged EU

Data Bases and Statistical Systems: Sociology

As a rule, core databases contain quantitative survey data. Traditionally, qualitative data, for example, ethnographic field notes or transcripts of group discussions and interviews, have not been made available for secondary analysis. This is slowly changing, and a number of data archives in Europe, Australia, and the US are working on the archiving of qualitative data. Quantitative social science ...

Perceived Economic Uncertainty and Fertility: Evidence From a Labor Market Reform

Whereas in theory individuals tend to postpone fertility decisions in times of economic uncertainty, empirical evidence on that question is scarce. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (N=4,548), the authors estimated the effect of economic concerns on the probability of becoming pregnant in the next year. They exploited exogenous variation in economic concerns induced by the announcement ...

Learning intensity effects in students’ mental and physical health – Evidence from a large scale natural experiment in Germany

In this study, we analyze the health effects of a recent education reform in Germany exposing students to increased learning intensity. The reform shortened the higher secondary education track by one year. As the overall curriculum required for graduation was held constant, this led to an increase in instruction hours in the remaining school years. The reform was introduced at different points in ...

Income and Employment Effects of Trade and Offshoring in Modern Labor Markets (Dissertation)

Dynamic Properties of Energy Affordability Measures

Measures of affordability and of fuel poverty are applied in practice to assess the affordability of energy services, for example, or of water or housing. The extensive body of literature on affordability measures has little overlap with the existing literature on poverty measurement. A comprehensive assessment of the response of affordability measures as a result of changes in the distribution of ...