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Copyright of Industrielle Beziehungen is the property of Rainer Hampp Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study contributes to the international literature on welfare dynamics, by providing a differentiated picture of paths through the means-tested Basic Income for recipients who are capable of working, after the reorganisation of the basic income system in Germany in 2005. We analyse the employment and benefit trajectories of individuals who became recipients for the first time between 2007 and 2009 by methods of sequence and cluster analysis based on representative administrative individual data. We find a significant polarisation between long-term recipients and those with an early exit from benefit receipt via full-time employment. One in three new recipients remains in benefit receipt for the next years and shows almost no employment activities. Approximately 23 percent leave benefit receipt quickly and work in full-time employment. Several other different paths exist between these two poles. These heterogeneous trajectories should be characteristic for broad basic income systems and require a variety of policies that in part are beyond labour market policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the 1996 reform of the German child benefit program to identify the causal effect of heterogeneous child benefits on fertility. While generally the reform increased child benefits, the exact amount of the increase varied by household income and the number of children. We use these heterogeneities to identify their causal effects on fertility in a difference-in-difference setting. We apply the large samples of the German Mikrozensus and the rich data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The reform effects on low-income couples are not statistically significant. We find some support for positive fertility effects for higher as opposed to lower income couples deciding on a second birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study state dependence in welfare receipt and investigate whether welfare transitions changed after a welfare reform. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we apply dynamic multinomial logit estimators and find that state dependence in welfare receipt is not a central feature of the German welfare system. We find that welfare transitions changed after the reform: Transitions from welfare to employment became more likely and persistence in welfare and inactivity declined. We observe a large relative increase in transitions from employment to welfare. Immigrants' responsiveness to the labor market situation increased after the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a simple model of the housing market and homelessness by taking into consideration both flat size and quality. A critical income ensuring positive housing consumption can be determined. The empirical analysis of districts in North Rhine- Westphalia suggests that conditions on the housing market, income levels and several variables depicting a district's social environment are important drivers of homelessness: high rents and relatively few vacant small flats lead to an increase in homelessness. The condition of vacant flats significantly affects homelessness levels too. Homelessness also increases when the share of those with a very low income is higher, since this makes it more difficult to reach the critical income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence reveals that German welfare recipients often participate in multiple active labour market programmes (ALMPs). However, evidence on the effectiveness of ALMPs exists mostly for single ALMP participations so far. This article evaluates the sequential participation in ALMPs for welfare recipients in Germany based on comprehensive administrative data to control for dynamic selection that arises in the evaluation of sequences. Using a dynamic causal model and an inflow sample of welfare recipients, the article analyses the effects of sequences of a public employment programme called One-Euro-Jobs on labour market outcomes. For female participants in One-Euro-Jobs in the first period, especially in West Germany, the results imply that participating in two consecutive One-Euro-Jobs compared with receiving only welfare benefits for two consecutive periods better facilitates integration into regular employment. Moreover, taking part in a One-Euro-Job directly after entry into welfare receipt is also more effective for participants in One-Euro-Jobs in the first period than taking part in a One-Euro-Job in a later period, especially for East German men (although not for West German women). However, I also find evidence of so-called programme careers and stepwise integration into regular employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does labour market policy affect welfare recipients and long-term unemployed people? We investigate whether job search assistance (JSA) helps disadvantaged individuals to find jobs and whether courses or individual counselling is more successful in reaching this goal. To evaluate individual employment effects, we apply a quasi-experimental design and construct suitable comparison groups using propensity score matching methods. We compare participants to nonparticipants as well as participants of both schemes directly. Our article benefits from access to rich administrative data from the German Federal Employment Agency. When comparing participants to nonparticipants, results suggest that the individual JSA does not affect participants’ employment prospects at all and that the course JSA even decreased their employment chances. At the same time, differences in these effects can be ascribed to programme design differences and to differences in the groups of participants. Therefore, we compare both programmes directly to each other, that is, we use the other programme participants as a comparison group, respectively. We found some evidence that individual JSA performs better than course JSA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fixed cutoff dates regulating school entry create disadvantages for children who are young relative to their classmates. Early and late school enrollment, though, might mitigate these disadvantages. In this paper, we analyze in a first step which factors determine school entry, if entrance screenings allow for early and late enrollment. Second, we study whether children benefit from a delayed school entry. Using data on a compulsory school entrance screening of a German federal state, we show that children with impairments in cognitive, socio-emotional, and motor development as well as health but also young children are less likely to be recommended to start school. Delaying school entry allows the delayed children to improve, although their developmental status remains below average. School entrance screenings, thus, induce more flexible school entry rules that attenuate performance differences within a class and, as a result, mitigate disadvantages for children being young compared with their classmates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the patterns of welfare dependence among first generation immigrants and natives in Germany before and after a substantial recent reform of the welfare system. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, the analysis presents life cycle trajectories of transfer receipt for immigrants and natives and studies the correlation between contextual factors and transfer receipt. We find no statistically significant differences in the probability of transfer receipt between immigrants and natives once socioeconomic characteristics are taken into account. Being a single parent, labor market status, and human capital are most closely correlated with the incidence of transfer receipt for both natives and immigrants. Interestingly, recent welfare reforms did not reverse prior patterns of welfare dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates empirically the influence of government ideology on social policy using German data. Examining the funding and the benefits of social security and public healthcare policy, my results suggest that policies implemented by governments dominated by left- and rightwing parties were similar over the 1951-2007 period. Leftwing governments, however, spent more in the 1970s and rightwing governments did so after German Reunification in 1990. Since policy convergence encourages new parties to enter the political arena, and party platforms on social policy matters are likely to undergo further changes in light of demographic change, the observed pattern may thus be a transitory phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering the first fifteen years immediately after German reunification, this paper analyzes the people's support to the transition. The focus is on individuals' preferences for the intervention of the government in the economy and on the opinion about competition per se. Eastern German data are compared with Western German data. Using suitable data that allow for interpersonal comparisons, the paper shows that Eastern Germans have always preferred an intervention of the public hand in the economy deeper than Western Germans; these different positions have hardly converged during the examined period of time. However there are no significant differences with respect to how Germans perceive competition per se: it is considered as a good by the people living in both parts of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel and from official statistics, I study whether natives are less supportive of state help for the unemployed in regions where the share of foreigners among the unemployed is high. Unlike previous studies, I use individual-level panel data, which allows a more convincing identification of a causal effect. I find that the negative bivariate association is mainly driven by observed individual differences, such as East German origin or income. While there remains some evidence of a negative association even after adjusting for observed and unobserved individual differences, the association is relatively weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, methods for the economic evaluation of health care technologies were increasingly used to inform reimbursement decisions. For a short time, the German Statutory Health Insurance makes use of these methods to support reimbursement decisions on patented drugs. In this context, the discounting procedure emerges as a critical component of these methods, as discount rates can strongly affect the resulting incremental cost-effectiveness ratios. The aim of this paper is to identify the appropriate value of a social discount rate to be used by the German Statutory Health Insurance for the economic evaluation of health technologies. On theoretical grounds, we build on the widespread view of contemporary economists that the social rate of time preference (SRTP) is the adequate social discount rate. For quantifying the SRTP, we first apply the market behaviour approach, which assumes that the SRTP is reflected in observable market interest rates. As a second approach, we derive the SRTP from optimal growth theory by using the Ramsey equation. A major part of the paper is devoted to specify the parameters of this equation. Depending on various assumptions, our empirical findings result in the range of 1.75-4.2% for the SRTP. A reasonable base case discount rate for Germany, thus, would be about 3%. Furthermore, we deal with the much debated question whether a common discount rate for costs and health benefits or a lower rate for health should be applied in health economic evaluations. In the German social health insurance system, no exogenously fixed budget constraint does exist. When evaluating a new health technology, the health care decision maker is obliged to conduct an economic evaluation in order to examine whether there is an economically appropriate relation between the value of the health gains and the additional costs which are given by the value of the consumption losses due to the additional health care expenditures. Therefore, a discount rate lower than the SRTP for consumption should be applied if an increase in the consumption value of health is expected. However, given the limited empirical evidence on the relationship between consumption and the value of health, it is hardly possible to make reliable forecasts of this value. Regarding the practice of the German evaluation authority, it is not recommended to use differential discounting in the base case. Instead, the issue of differential discounting should be addressed in sensitivity analyses. Reducing the discount rate for health compared to the rate for costs by a figure in the range between near 0% and 3% may be considered to be appropriate for Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) is a new administrative longitudinal microdata set representative of recipients of Germany's main welfare programme, the Unemployment Benefit II (UB II, Arbeitslosengeld II). The data set contains detailed longitudinal information on welfare receipt and labour market activities, and hence enables researchers to analyse the dynamics of benefit receipt, income and employment. A distinct feature of the SIG is that it provides information not only for individual benefit recipients but also for family members, including children and partners. This is possible because eligibility for UB II benefits depends on the household structure, and it is means-tested on household income. In addition to socio-demographic and regional information, the SIG contains extensive information on the employment biographies of benefit recipients and their household members from the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). This allows researchers to examine the interaction between labour market participation and benefit receipt. The SIG is available to researchers at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the IAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]