Problems of the German Contribution to EU-SILC - A Research Perspective, Comparing EU-SILC, Microcensus and SOEP

EU-SILC will become one of the most important statistical data sources for the Federal Government's future Poverty and Wealth Reports, for comparing Germany's position with those of the other EU member states in the "open method of coordination", and for the international scientific community and international organisations. Hence this sample needs intensive quality control to ensure data quality. Ex ante quality control must take the form of selecting suitable survey methods, internal control of consistency of the data collected from each household, transparent data editing, reliable imputation methods and compensation for drop-outs by reweighting. Ex post consistency checks are needed in the form of comparison with other similar household samples, with administrative statistics and with macro-economic aggregates of the national accounts. In this paper the need for intensive ex post quality control is met with consistency checks in the form of a comparison between the results of EU-SILC and the microcensus and SOEP, which reveals significant deviations in the coverage of poorly integrated foreigners, small children and the level of education, as well as the ratio of house/apartment owners and the employment ratio. This causes serious distortions to the Laeken indicators calculated

Informations-Technologie in Unternehmen und Haushalten 2004

Seit dem Jahr 2002 werden in fast allen Mitgliedsländern der EU harmonisierte Piloterhebungen zur Nutzung von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) in Un ternehmen und privaten Haushalten durchgeführt. An diesen Piloterhebungen hat sich die deutsche amtliche Statistik seither, d.h. in den Jahren 2002, 2003 und 2004, betei ligt. In der vorliegenden Broschüre werden daraus ausgewählte Ergebnisse mit dem Schwerpunkt auf dem aktuellen Berichtsjahr 2004 sowie im europäischen Vergleich vorge stellt. Damit wird erstmalig die deutsche Position bei der IKT-Nutzung im europäischen Umfeld eingeordnet. Die Ergebnisse beziehen sich – sofern nicht anders erwähnt – jeweils auf das erste Quartal des Jahres

Labor force- and work volume-projections until 2060

Diese Arbeit analysiert die Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels auf das Arbeitsangebot und leitet auf Basis verschiedener Szenarien Politikempfehlungen ab, um dem demografisch bedingten Arbeitskräfterückgang zu begegnen. In einem ersten Schritt werden hierbei Erwerbspersonenprojektion anhand eines Kohorten-Komponenten-Modells vorgenommen und durch verschiedene Modellrechnungen ergänzt. Neben einer Abschätzung der Erwerbspersonenzahl bei einer Erhöhung des effektiven Renteneintrittsalters werden die Konsequenzen eines früheren Erwerbseintritts, einer steigenden Erwerbsbeteiligung der über 60-Jährigen, einer verstärkten Erwerbsbeteiligung von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund sowie einer erhöhten Erwerbsbeteiligung der Frauen untersucht. In einem zweiten Schritt werden die Effekte einer sinkenden Erwerbslosenquote sowie einer steigenden Arbeitszeit je Erwerbstätigen betrachtet, um so Rückschlüsse über das zukünftige Arbeitsvolumen zu ziehen. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass eine hinreichende Stabilisierung des jährlich geleisteten Arbeitsvolumens möglich ist, so dass bereits geringe Produktivitätssteigerungen dafür ausreichen werden, das Bruttoinlandsprodukt je Einwohner auf dem heutigen Niveau zu stabilisieren

Measuring Regional Inequality by Internet Car Price Advertisements: Evidence for Germany

We suggest to use Internet car sale price advertisements for measuring economic inequality between and within German regions. Our estimates of regional income levels and Gini indices based on advertisements are highly, positively correlated with the official figures. This implies that the observed car prices can serve as a reasonably good proxy for income levels. In contrast to the traditional measures, our data can be fast and inexpensively retrieved from the web, and more importantly allow to estimate Gini indices at the NUTS2 level - something that never has been done before. Our approach to measuring regional inequality is a useful alternative source of information that could complement the officially available measures

Associations of dry skin, skin care habits, well‐being, sleep quality and itch in nursing home residents : results of a multicentre, observational, cross‐sectional study

Aim: Dry skin is one of the most frequent cutaneous problems in aged long-term care residents. Although it is clinically relevant, the impact on quality of life is unclear. The objective was to measure well-being, sleep quality and itch in nursing home residents being 65 years and older and to explore possible associations with demographics, dry skin and skincare habits. Design: Multicentre, observational, cross-sectional. Methods: Sleep quality was assessed with the Richards-Campbell Sleep Quality Questionnaire, well-being with the WHO-Five Well-being Index and itch with the 5-D Itch scale. Skin dryness was measured using the Overall Dry Skin score. Results: A total of 51 residents were included. The item scores of the sleep quality and itch questionnaires were strongly associated with each other. Demographics, dry skin and skincare habits were not associated with the questionnaires. It is unclear whether basic skincare activities can improve the quality of life in this population

Changes in union membership over time : a panel analysis for West Germany

Despite the apparent stability of the wage bargaining institutions in West Germany, aggregate union membership has been declining dramatically since the early 90's. However, aggregate gross membership numbers do not distinguish by employment status and it is impossible to disaggregate these sufficiently. This paper uses four waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel in 1985, 1989, 1993, and 1998 to perform a panel analysis of net union membership among employees. We estimate a correlated random effects probit model suggested in Chamberlain (1984) to take proper account of individual specfic effects. Our results suggest that at the individual level the propensity to be a union member has not changed considerably over time. Thus, the aggregate decline in membership is due to composition effects. We also use the estimates to predict net union density at the industry level based on the IAB employment subsample for the time period 1985 to 1997. JEL - Klassifikation: J

Credit constraints and margins of import: first evidence for German manufacturing enterprises

This study uses tailor made enterprise level data from various sources for firms from manufacturing industries to test for the link between credit constraints, measured by a credit rating score provided by a leading credit rating agency, and imports in Germany for the first time. We find empirical evidence that a better credit rating score is positively related to extensive margins of import - firms with a better score have a higher probability to import, they import more goods and they source from more countries of origin. The intensive margin of imports - the share of imports in total sales - is found not to be related to credit constraints

Motivation to study in Higher Education:a comparison between Germany and Great Britain

This article deals with reasons for the motivation to study in higher education. To find out about motives, around 200 A-level students in Germany and Great Britain were asked about their plans for the time after completion of their A-levels. Through socio-demographic data the authors could deploy facts about social backgrounds and the affiliations to socio-economic classes. There are some expected findings (e.g., British A-level students are more likely to study than their German comrades) and some pretty unexpected results (e.g., social classes do not seem to divide students into choosing university or not)

Immigration and Structural Change – Evidence from Post-War Germany

Does immigration accelerate sectoral change towards high-productivity sectors? This paper uses the mass displacement of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe to West Germany after World War II as a natural experiment to study this question. A simple two-sector model of the economy, in which moving costs prevent the marginal product of labor to be equalized across sectors, predicts that immigration boosts output per worker by expanding the high-productivity sector, but decreases output per worker within a sector. Using German district-level data from before and after the war, we find strong empirical support for these predictions.Beschleunigt Zuwanderung den sektoralen Wandel hin zu hoch-produktiven Sektoren? Diese Arbeit nutzt die Vertreibung von Deutschen aus Osteuropa nach Westdeutschland nach dem Zeiten Weltkrieg als ein natürliches Experiment, um diese Frage zu untersuchen. Ein einfaches Zwei-Sektoren-Modell, in welchem Mobilitätskosten verhindern, dass sich das Grenzprodukt der Arbeit zwischen den Sektoren angleicht, sagt voraus, dass Immigration den Output pro Kopf erhöht indem sie den hoch-produktiven Sektor expandieren lässt, gleichzeitig aber den Output pro Kopf innerhalb eines Sektors reduziert. Eine empirische Analyse, basierend auf Regierungsbezirksdaten der Vor- und Nachkriegszeit, findet starke Evidenz für diese Vorhersagen