Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The Effect of the Post-Socialist Transition on Inequality of Educational Opportunity: Evidence from German Unification

In 1990, German unification led to an abrupt and extensive restructuring of the educational system and economy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the latter was reintegrated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). However, the consequences of this large-scale institutional change for the educational inequality between children from different social class backgrounds in East Germany continue ...

Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany

Research on intergenerational social mobility tends to focus on examining the level of overall social fluidity in society. However, from a social justice perspective it can be argued that the type of social fluidity that matters most is upward mobility from the lowest rung of the social ladder. This article examines the labour market chances of children from parents in unskilled working-class positions, ...

Estimating the dynamics of poverty in Europe via TFR approach: the experience of the second half of the nineties

A Comparative Analysis of School-To-Work Transitions in the European Union

Return intentions over the life course: Evidence on the effects of life events from a longitudinal sample of first- and second-generation Turkish migrants in Germany

Background: Although a growing body of migration literature has focused on the determinants of migrants’ plans to return to the home country, the role major life events play in return migration intention – including transitions and turning points, key concepts of the life course approach – has barely been examined. Objective: We address the following research question: What are the effects of family, ...

Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions

This paper is the first systematic attempt to investigate the factors affecting time persistence in individual remittance behaviour. By using micro-level longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we apply a wide variety of discrete choice static and dynamic panel models to analyse the decision to remit. Our results provide evidence in favour of an intertemporal strategy. The persistence ...

Intertemporal remittance behaviour by immigrants in Germany

In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in the 1997-2009 period for a large sample of migrants from 84 countries in order to develop an empirical model for the propensity by migrants to remit. Our model takes into full account the intertemporal aspects of the problem, which has been ignored by a large part of the applied literature, despite its theoretical and empirical ...

Wage Performance of Immigrants in Germany

This paper uses a large survey (SOEP) to update and deepen our knowledge about the labor market performance of immigrants in Germany. It documents that immigrant workers initially earn on average 20 percent less than native workers with otherwise identical characteristics. The gap is smaller for immigrants from advanced countries, with good German language skills, and with a German degree, and larger ...

Household Savings Decision and Income Uncertainty

This paper empirically investigates the effects of changes in the interest rate as well as transitory income uncertainty on households' consumption-savings decision. Applying a structural demand model to German survey data, we estimate the uncompensated interest rate elasticity for savings, in line with the literature, to around zero. Accordingly, any policy-induced variation of net returns to ...

Intergenerational transfers: The ignored role of time