Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition
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Timm Bönke
Summary
Based on six harmonized cross-sections of the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure, we study inter-temporal changes in poverty from year 1978 to 2003. Results are decomposed by region and household types, and the bootstrap method is applied to test for the statistical significance of all our findings. Across household types, single parents with children have the highest poverty risk.Most striking is a huge regional divide in poverty which only narrows slightly over the period under investigation: the incidence and the intensity of poverty are substantially higher in the New states. A nonlinear Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is conducted to quantify the separate contribution of regional differences in households’ characteristics to the likelhood of being poor. Estimates from the decomposition indicate that differences in the distributions of socioeconomic characteristics play a negligible role for the 1993 poverty divide. Already in year 2003, however, differences in the distributions of characteristics explain more than fifty percent of the poverty divide, indicating that the poverty divide is likely to become a persistent phenomenon.
© 2011 by Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt / Contents
- Abhandlungen / Original Papers
- Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition
- Ein-Euro-Jobs und reguläre Beschäftigung / One-Euro-Jobs and Regular Employment
- Business Cycle Co-movement and Trade Intensity in the Euro Area: is there a Dynamic Link?
- Wie hat sich die intragenerationale Umverteilung in der staatlichen Säule des Rentensystems verändert? / Has Intragenerational Redistribution Become Less Important in Pension Systems’ Public Pillar?
- Diskussionsbeitrag / Discussion Paper
- Kosten des Europäischen Finanzstabilisierungsmechanismus (EFSM) aus deutscher Sicht / The Costs of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) – The German Point of View
- Literaturbeitrag / Review Paper
- Fortgeschrittene Evolutorische Ökonomik / Advanced Evolutionary Economics
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt / Contents
- Abhandlungen / Original Papers
- Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition
- Ein-Euro-Jobs und reguläre Beschäftigung / One-Euro-Jobs and Regular Employment
- Business Cycle Co-movement and Trade Intensity in the Euro Area: is there a Dynamic Link?
- Wie hat sich die intragenerationale Umverteilung in der staatlichen Säule des Rentensystems verändert? / Has Intragenerational Redistribution Become Less Important in Pension Systems’ Public Pillar?
- Diskussionsbeitrag / Discussion Paper
- Kosten des Europäischen Finanzstabilisierungsmechanismus (EFSM) aus deutscher Sicht / The Costs of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) – The German Point of View
- Literaturbeitrag / Review Paper
- Fortgeschrittene Evolutorische Ökonomik / Advanced Evolutionary Economics
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
