Ingrid Tucci ist Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am DIW in Berlin.

Inhalt: Editorial: SOEP 2010: The 9th International Socio-Economic Panel User Conference - Family and Inequality: Oliver Arránz Becker / Daniel Lois, Leisure-related Opportunity Costs and the Transition to Motherhood. A Panel Analysis - Anke Radenacker, Economic Consequences of Family Break-Ups. Income before and after Family Break-Ups of Women in Germany and the United States - Sabine Keller, Biographical Consequences of Teenage Motherhood in Germany - Friedhelm Pfeiffer / Ruben R. Seiberlich, Disconnected Young Adults in Germany: Initial Evidence - Intergenerational Transmission: Thomas Leopold / Thorsten Schneider, Gifts, Bequests, and Social Inequality in West Germany - Dean R. Lillard, Keeping it in the Family? If Parents Smoke Do Children Follow? - Veronika V. Eberharter, The Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Disadvantages and Social Exclusion: Constraints on Social Mobility - Labour Market Mobility: Johannes Giesecke / Jan Paul Heisig, Destabilization and Destandardization: For Whom? The Development of West German Job Mobility since 1984 - Annette Bergemann / Regina T. Riphahn, The Introduction of a Short-Term Earnings-Related Parental Leave Benefit System and Differential Effects on Employment Intentions - Paul Schmelzer, Consequences of Job Mobility for the Subsequent Earnings at the Beginning of the Employment Career in Germany and the UK - Anna Manzoni / Irma Mooi-Reci, Early Unemployment and Subsequent Career Complexity: A Sequence-Based Perspective - Income Inequality: Martin Biewen / Andos Juhasz, Can Employment Changes Explain Rising Income Inequality in Germany? - Gulgun Bayaz / Richard V. Burkhauser / Kenneth A. Couch, Trends in Intragenerational Income Mobility in the Western States of Germany and the United States (1984-2006) - Gunther Schmaus / Sally Bould, Equivalence Scales and the Cost of Children: The Case of Household Splits in Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom - Health: Sten Becker / Karin Kurz, Social Inequality in Early Childhood Health. Participation in the Preventive Health Care Program for Children - Patrick Hullegie / Tobias J. Klein, The Effect of Private Health Insurance on Doctor Visits, Hospital Nights, and Self-Assessed Health: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel - Policy Effects on Behaviour: Ursina Kuhn, Persuasion Effects in Electoral Campaigns. A Comparative Analysis of Household Panel Data - Josef Brüderl / Volker Ludwig, Does a Smoking Ban Reduce Smoking? Evidence from Germany

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study was founded in the early 1980s, when it received its first round of financing from the German Research Foundation (DFG). Over the last twenty years, international SOEP conferences have been organized every two years, bringing international researchers together. The 9th International Socio-Economic Panel User Conference held in Berlin in 2010 again attracted significant interest within the SOEP scientific community and proved a great success in terms of the number of submissions and the quality of the papers.

The papers presented are evidence of the variety of perspectives household panel data offer to researchers: Such data make it possible to analyze processes of individual or household mobility over the life course, to assess the influence of institutional changes on individual behavior, and to understand the processes underlying the intergenerational transmission of well-being, attitudes, and values. For this special issue of Schmollers Jahrbuch, 17 conference papers focusing on Germany or offering cross-national comparisons were selected after a peer review process and grouped according to six thematic foci: family and inequality, intergenerational transmission, labor market mobility, income inequality, health, and effects of public policies on behavior.