Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Microsimulation of Social Policy in the European Union: Case Study of a European Minimum Pension

While policies to eliminate poverty remain the responsibility of member states, the European Union may have a role to play in setting minimum standards. This paper explores the implications of a European Minimum Pension. A prototype Europe–wide tax benefit microsimulation model is used to examine the distributional impact of the reform, asking how far such a policy is ‘targeted’ on the poorest pensioners. ...

Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of "Secondary" Data-Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries as a Case Study

On the Identification of the Middle Class

EU Action on Social Inclusion and Gender Mainstreaming

Unemployment Compensation and Labor Market Transitions: A Critical Review

Health behavior: a dynamic analysis with regard to poverty and social inequality

Poverty and social inequality are related to health-damaging behavior, such as a poor diet, smoking, or low physical activity. In contrast to previous studies that focused on this issue often with regard to income poverty or socio-economic status (SES), this thesis integrates additionally a combined poverty indicator to analyze cumulative poverty. Also dynamic aspects of poverty and SES are examined ...

Poverty dynamics in Germany: Evidence on the relationship between persistent poverty and health behavior

Previous studies have found poverty to be related to lower levels of health due to poor health behavior such as unhealthy eating, smoking or less physical activity. Longer periods of poverty seem to be especially harmful for individual health behavior. Studies have shown that poverty has a dynamic character. Moreover, poverty is increasingly regarded as being a multidimensional construct and one that ...

Fixed-Term Employment and Fertility: Evidence from German Micro Data

We study the short- to medium-run effects on subsequent fertility of starting a career with a fixed-term contract. We focus on career start since we expect that temporary contracts and their inherent economic uncertainty imply a path dependence that might have spill-over effects on other domains of life. Our empirical analysis is based on rich data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, which provides ...

Copayments in the German Health System - Do They Work?

The Effect of Self-assessed Job Security on the Demand for Medical Rehab

The interdependence of labor market conditions and the demand for health care has been addressed by several theoretical and empirical analyses. We contribute to the debate by empirically examining the effect of a decrease in self-perceived job security on health care utilization. That is, employees at risk of losing their job might postpone or even try not to use non-acute rehab measures in order to ...