According to calculations based on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, the proportion of middle-income group in Germany fell by six percentage points from 1991 to 2013, taking it to 54 percent. Germany is not the only country to have experienced such a downturn, however. Analyses of the...

A new representative survey of a total of 4,500 recently arrived refugees to Germany conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FZ), and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute for...

According to calculations based on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, average disposable household income rose by five percent in real terms between 2000 and 2012. Only the highest earners have benefited from this development. While real income in the top ten percent rose by more than 15...

People's expectations after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and of reunification in 1990 were huge. The government promised to create "flourishing landscapes" within a few years. The euphoria of reunification came not only through the desire to finally become one country and one nation...

People’s expectations after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and of reunification in 1990 were huge. The government promised to create “flourishing landscapes” within a few years. The euphoria of reunification came not only through the desire to finally become one country and one...

New analyses of personal income distribution in Germany, based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), show that real market income in private households rose significantly from 2005 to 2010. An increase in real disposable income was also observed. At the same time, income...

New analyses of personal income distribution in Germany, based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), show that real market income in private households rose significantly from 2005 to 2010. An increase in real disposable income was also observed. At the same time, income...

Calculations based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) show that after the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany in January 2015, the wage growth of eligible employees with low wages accelerated significantly. Before the reform, the nominal growth in contractual hourly...

Towards the very end of this legislative period, a cross-caucus parliamentary majority gave same-sex marriage the green light - progress for the legal equality of homosexuals in Germany. This report focuses on the life situations of homosexual and bisexual people in Germany. The careers they...

Inequality of disposable incomes in Germany has decreased slightly since its peak in 2005. However, this trend did not continue in 2011. The most important reasons for this were the inequality in market incomes, including capital incomes, which had increased again. Besides this finding, the...