SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Economics of the Personal Distribution of Income

Accounting for Poverty Differences between the United States, Great Britain, and Germany

We propose a framework for comparing the relationship between poverty and personal characteristics across countries (or across years), and use it to compare levels and patterns of relative poverty in the USA, Great Britain and Germany during the 1990s. The higher aggregate poverty rates in the USA and in Britain relative to Germany were mostly accounted for by higher poverty rates conditional on characteristics, ...

The Effect of Family Income during Childhood on Later-life Attainment: Evidence from Germany

We examine the impact of family income during childhood on the type of secondary school that German children attend, a good indicator of their lifetime socioeconomic attainment. By contrast with several US child outcome studies, we find that late-childhood income is a more important determinant of outcomes than early-childhood income, and income effects are not greater for poor households compared ...

Incidence and Intensity of Permanent Income Poverty in European Countries

Imputed Rent and Income Inequality: A Decomposition Analysis for the UK, West Germany and the USA

Economic and Social Perspectives of Immigrant Children in Germany

Overall, children in Germany live in households with below average incomes; therefore social policies that address the vulnerable position of Germany's children are necessary. These policies should cover targeted financial transfers as well as improvements in day care provision for children. With respect to selected non-monetary as well as monetary indicators our empirical analyses show significant ...

Income Composition and Redistribution in Germany: The Role of Ethnic Origin and Assimilation

This paper deals with the relative economic performance of immigrants compared to the native born population in Germany. We compare pre and post-government income, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1995 to 1997. We categorize six population subgroups by the ethnicity of the adult household members: native-born West Germans, East Germans, "pure" Aussiedler (ethnic German immigrants), ...

Immigrants, Natives and Social Assistance: Comparable Take-Up under Comparable Circumstances

Are immigrants on welfare because they are more likely to be eligible or because they are more likely to claim benefits for which they are eligible? The answer is politically important, but because most current research on immigration and welfare is based on data from the United States, the answer is difficult due to the complexities of the transfer system which make eligibility determinations difficult. ...

Living Conditions of Immigrant Children in Germany

The Impact of Poverty on Children's School Attendance: Evidence from West-Berlin