Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Gender Differences in German Upward Income Mobility

Does Relationship Specific Investment Depend on Asset Ownership? Evidence From a Natural Experiment in the Housing Market

In this paper, I test the most basic prediction of Grossman and Hart (1986, The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration. Journal of Political Economy, 691-719): allocations of asset ownership that expose a party to ex-post expropriation reduce this party’s exante relationship-specific investments. In the empirical context of the German housing market, I find that ...

Measuring the competitive impact of the internet: Evidence from a natural experiment in broadband access

To identify the competitive effect of online competition, I exploit that consumers in some German municipalities lack broadband access due to legacy glass fibre cables. In these areas with reduced online competition, I find that offline employment in electronics retailing grows faster than in the control areas. I find no such differential for food retailing, where there is no online competition. Full ...

Essays in Empirical Health Economics

Economic Incentives and Hospitalization in Germany

More Unequal, But More Mobile? Earnings Inequality and Mobility in OECD Countries

This paper provides comprehensive cross-country evidence on the relationship between earnings inequality and intra-generational mobility by simulating individual earnings and employment trajectories in the long-term using short panel data for 24 OECD countries. On average across countries, about 25% of earnings inequality in a given year evens out over the life cycle as a result of mobility. Moreover, ...

Wage Cyclicality under Different Regimes of Industrial Relations

Since there is scant evidence on the role of industrial relations in wage cyclicality, this paper analyzes the effect of collective wage contracts and of works councils on real wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data for western Germany, we find that works councils affect wage growth only in combination with collective bargaining. Wage adjustments to positive and negative economic shocks are ...

Labour Market Segmentation: Standard and Non-Standard Employment in Germany

Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel provide insight into the relationship between standard and non-standard work, from the perspective of dual labour market theory. We identify two segments that largely correspond to the common distinction between these forms of employment and find substantial differences in the determination of wages, as well as the composition of worker and job characteristics. ...

Temporary Contracts - the new European inequality? Comparing men and women in West Germany and France

Are fixed-term jobs bad for your health?: A comparison of West-Germany and Spain