Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Female Labor Supply and Parental Leave Benefits: The Causal Effect of Paying Higher Transfers for a Shorter Period of Time

We study the labour supply effects of a major change in child-subsidy policy in Germany in 2007 designed to increase both fertility and shorten birth-related employment interruptions. The reform involved a move from a means-tested maternity leave benefit system that paid a maximum of 300 Euro for up to 2 years to a benefit system that replaced two-thirds of pre-birth earnings for at most 1 year. As ...

The Introduction of a Short-Term Earnings-Related Parental Leave Benefit System and Differential Effects on Employment Intentions

German family policy underwent a reform in 2007, when the new instrument of “Elterngeld” replaced “Erziehungsgeld.” The two programs differ in various respects. We studied the intended effects on the labor supply of young mothers by comparing these women’s employment intentions before and after the reform. We conducted separate investigations of high- and low-income women, who were treated differently ...

Maternal Employment Effects of Paid Parental Leave

We study the short, medium, and longer run employment effects of a substantial change in the parental leave benefit program in Germany. In 2007, a means-tested parental leave transfer program that had paid benefits for up to two years was replaced by an earnings related transfer which paid benefits for up to one year. The reform generated winners and losers with heterogeneous response incentives. We ...

A Note on the High Stability of Happiness: The Minimal Effects of a Nuclear Catastrophe on Life Satisfaction

Maternal Employment and Happiness: The Effect of Non-Participation and Part-Time Employment on Mothers’ Life Satisfaction

In contrast to unemployment, the effect of non-participation and parttime employment on subjective well-being has much less frequently been the subject of economists’ investigations. In Germany, many women with dependent children are involuntarily out of the labor force or in part-time employment because of family constraints (e.g., due to lack of available and appropriate childcare). Using data from ...

The Chernobyl Disaster, Concern about the Environment, and Life Satisfaction

Maternal Employment, Life Satisfaction, and Child Developmental Outcomes (Dissertation)

Locus of Control and Mothers’ Return to Employment

This paper investigates the effect of locus of control (LOC) on the length of mothers’ employment break after childbirth. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), duration data reveals that women with an internal LOC return to employment more quickly than women with an external LOC.We find that this effect is particularly pronounced in jobs in which the penalties in terms of lower ...

Unburden Renters by Making Landlords Pay the Commission? Evaluating a Policy Reform in Germany

When renting an apartment, often a commission is payable by the renter. In a perfect market, standard economic reasoning predicts the rental price for an apartment with a commission payable by the renter to be lower than the price for the same apartment without commission. We test this hypothesis against an alternative hypothesis based on insights from behavioral economics about mental accounting, ...

Maternal life satisfaction and child outcomes: Are they related?

This paper investigates the association between maternal life satisfaction and the developmental functioning of two- to three-year-old children as well as the socio-emotional behavior of five- to six-year-old children. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which allows us to control for a rich set of child and parental characteristics and to use the mother’s life satisfaction ...