Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Heterogeneity in the relationship between happiness and age: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

This paper studies the evolution of life satisfaction over the life course in Germany. It clarifies the causal interpretation of the econometric model by discussing the choice of control variables and the underidentification between age, cohort and time effects. The empirical part analyzes the distribution of life satisfaction over the life course at the aggregated, subgroup and individual level. To ...

Child Poverty during the Recession in Germany

The 2008 financial crisis triggered the worst global recession since the Great Depression. Many OECD countries responded to the crisis by reducing social spending. Through 11 diverse country case studies (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States), this volume describes the evolution of child poverty and material well-being during ...

Unlucky to Be Young? The Long-Term Effects of School Starting Age on Smoking Behaviour and Health

In this study, we analyse the long-term effects of school starting age on smoking behaviour and health in adulthood. School entry rules combined with birth month are used as an instrument for school starting age. The analysis adopts the German Socio-Economic Panel data and employs a fuzzy regression discontinuity design.

University Tuition Fees and High School Students’ Educational Intentions

This paper studies whether higher education tuition fees influence the intention to acquire a university degree among high school students and, if so, whether the effect on individuals from low-income households is particularly strong. We analyze the introduction and subsequent elimination of university tuition fees in Germany across states and over time in a difference-in-differences setting. Using data ...

Life Satisfaction Across the Lifespan: Findings from Two Nationally Representative Panel Studies

Two large-scale, nationally representative panel studies (the German Socio Economic Panel Study and the British Household Panel Study) were used to assess changes in life satisfaction over the lifespan. The cross-sectional and longitudinal features of these studies were used to isolate age-related changes from confounding factors including instrumentation effects and cohort effects. Although estimated ...

Who Did Safety Nets Catch During the Great Recession and How? A Comparison of Eleven OECD Countries

This paper compares the amount of income protection eleven OECD countries provided over the Great Recession. Using household-level data, I calculate the recession’s impact on earned income across the income distribution among the non-elderly populations, and investigate the degree to which additional government transfers compensated for these income losses. While the recession’s impact on earned income ...

Rent-Imputation for Welfare Measurement: A Review of Methodologies and Empirical Findings

Housing should always be included in the construction of the welfare aggregate for welfare analysis. However, assigning a value to the flow of services from dwellings is problematic. Many households own the dwelling in which they live, making this value unobserved; others receive free housing or face prices lower than those at the market. Over the last decades, several estimation techniques have been ...

Family background or the characteristics of children: What determines high school success in Germany?

It is becoming more and more important to be highly skilled in order to integrate successfully into the labor market. Highly skilled workers receive higher wages and face a lower risk of becoming unemployed, compared to poorly qualified workers. We analyze the determinants of successful high school graduation in Germany. As our main database, we use the youth file of GSOEP for the period extending ...

A Comparison of Parametric Models of Income Distribution Across Countries and Over Time

A Feasibility Study to Investigate Integrated Survey Data Collection, Fieldwork Management and Survey Data Processing Systems for Longitudinal Studies

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned this study to identify potential efficiency gains and quality improvements in the processes relating to survey data collection, data management and dissemination. The study relates particularly to the context of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) and the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC) – the two major ESRC investments responsible ...