Topic Distribution

Modelling Low Income Transitions

We examine the determinants of low income transitions using first-order Markov models that control for initial conditions effects (those found to be poor in the base year may be a nonrandom sample) and for attrition (panel retention may also be non-random). Our econometric model is a form of endogeneous switching regression, and is fitted using simulated maximum likelihood methods. The estimates, derived ...

Long-Term Effects of Unpaid Overtime

Why do people work unpaid overtime? We show that remarkable long-term labor earnings gains are associated with unpaid overtime in West Germany. A descriptive analysis suggests that over a 10-year period workers with unpaid overtime experience on average at least a 10 percentage points higher increase in real labor earnings than their co-workers. Applying panel data models this result generally holds. ...

The Covariance Structure of East and West German Incomes and its Implications for the Persistence of Poverty and Inequality

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper analyzes the dynamics of equivalent income in Germany in the eighties and nineties. Special emphasis is given to the separation of permanent and transitory components, the persistence of transitory shocks and their implications for the persistence of poverty and income inequality. The results suggest that 52 to 69 percent of income ...

Are People Inequality Averse, and Do They Prefer Redistribution by the State? Evidence from German Longitudinal Data on Life Satisfaction

We link life-satisfaction data to inequality of the pre-government income distribution at the regional level, to estimate the degree of inequality aversion. In addition, we investigate whether a reduction in inequality by the state increases individual well-being. We find that Germans are inequality averse over the entire income distribution. However, inequality reduction by the state does not increase ...

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

The Dynamics of Child Poverty: Britain and Germany Compared

We compare patterns of movements into and out of poverty by children in Britain and Germany using data from the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio- Economic Panel for the period 1992-7. Compared to Germany, in Britain poverty persistence is greater, and poverty exit rates in particular are lower. In both countries poverty is particularly persistent among children in lone parent households ...

Child Poverty Dynamics in Seven Nations

Der vorliegende Beitrag vergleicht die Armutsdynamik bei Kindern mithilfe von Paneldaten aus sieben Ländern: USA, Großbritannien, Deutschland, Irland, Spanien, Ungarn und Russland. Neben der Verwendung von Standard- Definitionen zur Erfassung relativer Armut, werden die Übergänge in und aus dem untersten Einkommensquintil bei Kindern untersucht. In den sieben untersuchten Ländern zeigt sich eine signifikante ...

The Impact of Eastern Enlargement on Employment and Labour Markets in the EU Member States: Final Report ; Manuscript Completed in 2001

Cross-National Estimates of the Intergenerational Mobility in Earnings

This paper examines the similarity in the association between earnings of sons and fathers in Germany and the United States. It relaxes the log-linear functional form imposed in most studies of the intergenerational earnings association. Theory implies the relationship between earnings of fathers and sons could be nonlinear, especially at the tails of the distribution of earnings of fathers. When a ...

Income Mobility in the United States and Germany: A Comparison of Two Classes of Mobility Measures using the GSOEP, PSID, and CPS

The United States is often considered to be more free-wheeling and mobile than Germany; however, previous cross-national studies of income mobility find the oppositeis true. This paper investigates these surprising results and finds that they are confirmed when income mobility is measured by changes in the positions of individuals inthe income distribution - members of former West German households ...