It is known that the childhood family environment has important effects on one's later course of life. In this context questions arise like "Does your educational success depend whether or not you grew up in a single parent household?", "Is it more likely that you are obese as a young adult when your mother was working during your childhood?" or "Do obese workers earn less than their non-obese peers?". The author, Philippe Mahler, answers these questions using German data. After a short introduction of the nature of microdata and especially household surveys the used survey - the German Socio-Economic Panel - is described. In each of the following three chapters of the book one question is described and analyzed by applying microeconomic theories and microeconometric methods.