Several vaccines against COVID-19 have now been developed and are already being rolled out around the world. The decision whether or not to get vaccinated has so far been left to the individual citizens. However, there are good reasons, both in theory as well as in practice, to believe that the...

Für das Gros der Bevölkerung sind Erwerbseinkommen die zentrale materielle Ressource während des aktiven Berufslebens. Sie bestimmen nicht nur maßgeblich die gegenwärtigen finanziellen Möglichkeiten der Beschäftigten, sondern beispielsweise auch deren künftige Rentenansprüche. Das...

According to Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, inequality in gross monthly earnings in Germany increased significantly between 1993 and 2003 and has been stagnating at a high level since 2008. As this Weekly Report shows, the increase is not being driven by higher hourly wage inequality, but...

We present evidence from a repeated survey on risky asset holdings carried out on a representative sample of the German population six times between April and June 2020. Given the size of the Covid‐19 shock, we find little evidence of portfolio rebalancing in April 2020. In May, however,...

Families’ economic wealth is a resource that can provide children with crucial advantages early in their lives. Prior research identified substantial variation of wealth levels between different family types with children from single-parent families being most disadvantaged. The causes of this...

We provide a concise introduction to a household-panel data infrastructure that provides the international research community with longitudinal data of private households in Germany since 1984: the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We demonstrate the comparative strength of the SOEP data in...

Das Rentenvermögen, also der Gegenwartswert der Ansprüche an die gesetzliche Rentenversicherung, betriebliche Altersvorsorge und Beamt*innenpensionen, wird typischerweise nicht in die Berechnung von Nettovermögen einbezogen. Nach Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) stellt das...

Two conversion schemes may be employed for assessing income inequality from household equivalent incomes: to weight household units by size or by needs. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study, we show the sensitivity of country inequality rankings to conversion schemes and explain the...