SOEP Research: Inequality and Mobility

Income Distribution and Social Exclusion of Children: Evidence from Italy and Spain in the 1990s

Missing Income Data in the German SOEP: Incidence, Imputation and its Impact on the Income Distribution

This paper deals with the question of selectivity of missing data on income questions in large panel surveys due to item-non-response and with imputation as one alternative strategy to cope with this issue. In contrast to cross-section surveys, the imputation of missing values in panel data can profit from longitudinal information which is available for the very same observation units from other points ...

Trends in Income Inequality, Pro-Poor Income Growth and Income Mobility

We provide an analytical framework within which changes in income inequality over time are related to the pattern of income growth across the income range, and the reshuffling of individuals in the income pecking order. We use it to explain how it was possible both for 'the poor' to have fared badly relatively to 'the rich' in the USA during the 1980s (when income inequality grew substantially), and ...

Imputed Rent and Income Inequality: A Decomposition Analysis for Great Britain, West Germany and the U.S.

This article deals with income advantages derived from owner-occupied housing and their impact on the personal income distribution. Using micro-data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), and the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) we find distinct cross-national differences in terms of the prevalence and extent of imputed rent. Results from inequality ...

Income Risks within Retirement in Great Britain and Germany

This study examines income mobility amongst older people in Great Britain and Germany after retirement. The motivation is that older people may be subject to greater income risks in today's environment of early exits from the labour force, rising longevity and increasing reliance on private pension income. Our results provide evidence that income mobility amongst older people is more pronounced in ...

Changes in Women's Wages after Parental Leave

In 1986 German parental leave and benefit policy was expanded by extending the potential duration of leave from six to ten months and paying maternity benefits to all new mothers. The potential duration has increased four times since 1986 and stood at three years in 1992. This study uses differenced log-wage regressions to examine the effect of taking maternity leave on wage growth for two 5-year periods, ...

Target Shortfall Orderings and Indices

Given any income distribution, to each income we associate a subgroup containing all persons whose incomes are not higher than this income and a person's target shortfall in a subgroup is the gap between the subgroup highest income and his own income. We then develop an absolute target shortfall ordering, which, under constancy of population size and total income, implies the Lorenz and Cowell-Ebert ...

To What Extent Do Fiscal Regimes Equalize Opportunities for Income Acquisition among Citizens?

This paper employs the theory of equality of opportunity, described in Roemer's book (Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998), to compute the extent to which tax-and-transfer regimes in 11 countries equalize opportunities among citizens for income acquisition. Roughly speaking, equality of opportunity for incomes has been achieved in a country when it is the case that the distributions ...

A Forgotten Issue: Distributional Effects of Day Care Subsidies in Germany

In general, day care subsidies are accepted as a means of creating equal chances for both children and mothers in the labour market. Although there is a broad consensus that the use of children's day care should be publicly supported, there is no consensus on how this should be done. Moreover, there is little knowledge on the distributional effects of day care subsidies. In order to assess whether ...

Too Few Women in Top Posts