Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

The "Family Working-Time Benefits Model" (Familienarbeitszeit): Giving Mothers More Time for Work, Giving Fathers More Time for Family

Two years ago, DIW Berlin introduced “Familienarbeitszeit”, which provides financial incentives for families in which both partners decide to take on reduced full-time employment (working hours amounting to roughly 80 percent of a full-time job). This study investigates further developments of this model: In addition to a more generous wage replacement variant, the study examines a simplified variant ...

The family working-time model: Towards more gender equality in work and care

Since the millennium, the labour market participation of women and mothers is increasing across European countries. Several work/care policy measures underlie this evolution. At the same time, the labour market behaviour of fathers, as well as their involvement in care work, is relatively unchanging, meaning that employed mothers are facing an increased burden with respect to gainful employment and ...

Labor Supply under Participation and Hours Constraints: An Extended Structural Model for Policy Evaluations

The paper extends a static discrete-choice labor supply model by adding participation and hours constraints. We identify restrictions by survey information on the eligibility and search activities of individuals as well as actual and desired hours. This provides for a more robust identification of preferences and constraints. Both, preferences and restrictions are allowed to vary by and are related ...

Would a Legal Minimum Wage Reduce Poverty? A Microsimulation Study for Germany

Labor Market and Income Effects of a Legal Minimum Wage in Germany

In view of rising wage and income inequality, the introduction of a legal minimum wage has recently become an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of a nationwide legal minimum wage of 7.50 € per hour on the basis of a microsimulation model which accounts for the complex interactions between individual wages, the tax-benefit system and net household incomes, also ...

Distributional effects of a minimum wage in a welfare state - The case of Germany

While employment effects of minimum wages have been extensively investigated, their effects on the distribution of incomes have received much less attention. Yet, a popular argument for a federal minimum wage is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this assertion for Germany, a welfare state with a relative generous means-tested social minimum and high marginal ...

Two Steps Forward - One Step Back?: Evaluating Contradicting Child Care Policies in Germany

We apply a structural model of mothers’ labor supply and child care choices to evaluate the effects of two child care reforms in Germany that were introduced simultaneously. A legal claim to subsidized child care became effective for children aged 1 year or older. Moreover, a new child care allowance (‘Betreuungsgeld’) came into effect. It is granted to families who do not use publicly subsidized child ...

Estimation and testing in generalized partial linear models—A comparative study

A particular semiparametric model of interest is the generalized partial linear model (GPLM) which extends the generalized linear model (GLM) by a nonparametric component. The paper reviews different estimation procedures based on kernel methods as well as test procedures on the correct specification of this model (vs. a parametric generalized linear model). Simulations and an application to a data ...

The Labour-force Participation of the Wives of Unemployed Men. Comparing Britain and West Germany Using Longitudinal Data

Welfare for the Unemployed in Britain and Germany - Who benefits? (Dissertation)