Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

A general decomposition formula with interaction effects

This note presents a general way to decompose differences over time or between objects into the ceteris paribus effects and the interaction effects of an arbitrary number of factors. The decomposition addresses the issue of interaction effects between factors which have been neglected in the decomposition literature. It has the additional advantage of being path-independent and aggregation consistent. ...

Who is most likely to be poor in Germany

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

Variance Estimation for Generalized Entropy and Atkinson Inequality Indices: the Complex Survey Data Case

Income Inequality: Can Employment Changes Explain Rising Income Inequality in Germany?

From 2000 to 2005, Germany experienced an unprecedented rise in net equivalized income inequality and poverty. At the same time, unemployment rose to record levels and overall employment stagnated, suggesting that changes in households’ conditional employment outcomes were partly responsible for the inequality increase observed. Using DiNardo /Fortin /Lemieux’s semiparametric kernel density reweighting ...

Understanding Rising Income Inequality in Germany, 1999/2000–2005/2006

We examine the factors behind rising income inequality in Europe's most populous economy. From 1999/2000 to 2005/2006, Germany experienced an unprecedented rise in net equivalized income inequality and poverty. At the same time, unemployment rose to record levels, part-time and marginal part-time work grew, and there was evidence for a widening distribution of labor incomes. Other factors that ...

Direct Estimation of Equivalence Scales and More Evidence on Independence of Base

We explore a direct approach to estimating household equivalence scales from income satisfaction data. Our method differs from previous approaches to using satisfaction data for this purpose in that it can be used to directly fit and evaluate closed-form and non-parametric equivalence scales of any desired form. Its flexibility makes it easy to consider specific aspects such as income dependence or ...

Unemployment Persistence: Is There Evidence for Stigma Effects?

We explore the idea that a negative relationship between individual unemployment persistence and the business cycle can be interpreted as evidence for stigma effects. Our results suggest that there is weak evidence for stigma effects.

Trends in the German Income Distribution: 2005/06 to 2010/11

We analyze the potential influence of a number of factors on the distribution of equivalized net incomes in Germany over the period 2005/2006 to 2010/11. While income inequality considerably increased in the years before 2005/2006, this trendwas stopped after 2005/2006. Among many other factors, we consider the role of the employment boom and the development of inequality in wage incomes after 2005/2006. ...

Unemployment duration and the length of entitlement periods for unemployment benefits: do the IAB employment subsample and the German Socio-Economic Panel yield the same results?