Office hours
by arrangement
Current position / Affiliation
Summer semester 2016
Winter semester 2015/16
Winter semester 2014/15
Summer semester 2014
Summer semester 2013
Workshop and Conference Contributions (selected)
Articles
[1] Die Einkommenssituation und -Entwicklung Verwitweter in Deutschland (with H. Engstler and A. Motel-Klingebiel), in: Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, 80(4), 2011, S. 77-102 (in German, English abstract).
Discussion papers & working papers
[2] Categorizing open answers in the DRM module of SOEP-IS, SOEP Survey Papers: Series D - Variable Description and Coding, DIW Berlin, 2018, No. 535.
Abstract
This paper documents the categorization of open answers in the diaries of the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) module of the SOEP Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS) for employed and unemployed workers. Respondents of the module reported either 1 out of 23/25 listed activities or a self-selected description of an activity during the previous day. By assigning the open answers either to the initially listed categories and by defining new categories for a subset of open answers enriches SOEP–IS DRM by more than 1,700 additional categorized episodes for quantitative analysis.
[1] Income Support, (Un-)Employment and Well-Being (with C. Hetschko & R. Schöb), School of Business and Economics Discussion Papers, Freie Universität Berlin, No. 2016/15.
Abstract
Using specific panel data of German welfare benefit recipients, we investigate the non-pecuniary life satisfaction effects of in-work benefits. Our empirical strategy combines difference-in-difference designs with synthetic control groups to analyze transitions of workers between unemployment, regular employment and employment accompanied by welfare receipt. Working makes people generally better off than being unemployed, but employed welfare recipients do not reach the life satisfaction level of regular employees. This implies that welfare receipt entails non-compliance with the norm to make one’s own living. Our findings allow us to draw cautious conclusions on employment subsidies paid as welfare benefits.
Also available as CESifo Working Paper No. 6016, 2016.
Policy papers
[1] Die soziale und wirtschaftliche Situation der Rechtsreferendar*innen in Berlin: Auswertung der Online-Umfrage 2014 (in German), Paper in behalf of the employee committee ("Personalrat") of Berlin articled clerks, 2014, Berlin.