Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Ethnic Concentration and Extreme Right-Wing Voting Behavior in West Germany

This paper analyzes the effect of educational mismatch on wages in Germany, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Educational mismatch has been discussed extensively, mostly by applying OLS wage regressions which are prone to an unobserved heterogeneity bias. This problem is approached by using FE and IV models. As a stability check, the regressions are rerun using data from the International ...

Unity in Diversity? The Spatial Distribution and Integration of Immigrants in West Germany (Thesis)

Ethnic residential segregation and immigrants’ perceptions of discrimination in West Germany

Using survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study shows that immigrants living in segregated residential areas are more likely to report discrimination because of their ethnic background. This applies to both segregated areas where most neighbours are immigrants from the same country of origin as the surveyed person and segregated areas where most neighbours are immigrants from other ...

Residential Segregation and Immigrants’ Satisfaction with the Neighborhood in Germany

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study examines the relationship between immigrant residential segregation and immigrants’ satisfaction with the neighborhood. The estimates show that immigrants living in segregated areas are less satisfied with the neighborhood. This is consistent with the hypothesis that housing discrimination rather than self-selection plays an important role ...

The Political Economy of Risk and Ideology

This paper argues for the central role of risk aversion in shaping political ideology. We develop a political economy model, which makes explicit the link between risk aversion, the labor market, government policy, and ideology. Our model distinguishes the effects of risk aversion from unemployment risk and our evidence sheds light on debates over explanations for the welfare state. We test our model ...

Risk Aversion and Redistribution

Can we measure individual risk attitudes in a survey?

We combine a survey and an experiment with real pay-out among Peking University students to measure and validate individual risk attitudes. The experiment involves choosing between a cash payment and playing a lottery. The survey questions ask for the reservation price of a hypothetical lottery and self-assessment of risk attitude on a 0-10 scale. We confirm familiar findings: risk aversion dominates, ...

Globalization and its (Dis-)Content: Trade Shocks and Political Attitudes

The last two decades have seen a dramatic rise of manufacturing trade between highwage and low-wage countries. We identify the causal effect of trade-integration on voting behavior in German local (sub-national) labor markets from 1987–1998 and 1998–2009 using both the Iron Curtain’s fall and China’s WTO ascension as exogenous shocks. The only segment of the political spectrum that responds is the ...

Estimating Causal Effects with Matching Methods in the Presence and Absence of Bias Cancellation

Assessing Bias in the Estimation of Causal Effects: Rosenbaum Bounds on Matching Estimators and Instrumental Variables Estimation with Imperfect Instruments