Time use and time budgets: Improvements, future challenges and recommendations

“Time-use statistics offer a unique tool for exploring a wide range of policy concerns including social change; division of labour; allocation of time for household work; the estimation of the value of household production; transportation; leisure and recreation; pension plans; and health-care programmes, among others” (United Nations). This expertise will discuss recent developments, improvements and future challenges of time use and time budgets for policy and research with focus on international and in particular German national developments. It is written in the sequel of the last German KVI commission report on the improvement of the information infrastructure between sciences and statistics. Topics are: recent :international time use institutions, data archives and surveys; German time use data bases and their access, actual time use research fields and studies; time use and economic and social policy; new methods in time use survey sampling, future developments and European and international challenges. The conclusions recommend first of all a new German Time Use Survey GTUS 2011/12 and urgently calls for its financing and start of organisation. Specific GTUS improvements, SOEP time use issues, a brand new time use panel and a permanent establishment of the German research data centres (RDCs) are recommended in addition.Time use, time budgets and time use surveys, time use data.

The Distribution of Income of Self-employed, Entrepreneurs and Professions as Revealed from Micro Income Tax Statistics in Germany

As simple as it is, results describing the world are heavily dependent on the quality of the underlying data. One of the very crucial variables in microanalytical analyses of well-being and human resources is income. The more, when the situation of the self-employed is regarded. This paper focus on the distribution of income based on very sound data: the German Income Tax Statistic (Einkommensteuerstatistik) 1992. New is the actual possibility to use for the first time such a sound microdatabase to analyze the self-employed in particular: a 100.000 microdata sample of the population wide German Income Tax Statistic. New is the comparison between income from dependent and self-employed work with emphasis on the entrepreneurs and professions, and new is the indepth decomposition inequality analysis of the aggregated groups and of the single professions based on an inequality generalized entropy decomposition approach. One overall striking result is: the occupational status as an employee, entrepreneur or as a profession with its connected low between inequality share is by far not the overall driving factor to ‘explain’ the overall income distribution and inequality picture of the re-unified Germany; it is the within group inequality which counts in particular.Income distribution of self-employed, entrepreneurs, professions, income tax statistics, microanalysis, decomposition of inequality

Microsimulation as an Instrument to Evaluate Economic and Social Programmes

In recent years microsimulation models (MSMs) have been increasingly applied in quantitative analyses of the individual impacts of economic and social programme policies. The suitability of using microsimulation as an instrument to analyze main and side policy impacts at the individual level will be discussed in this paper by characterizing: the general approach and principles of the two general microsimulation approaches: static and dynamic (cross-section and lifecycle) microsimulation, the structure of MSMs with institutional regulations and behavioural response, panel data and behavioural change, deterministic and stochastic microsimulation, the 4M-strategy to combine microtheory, microdata, microestimation and microsimulation, and pinpointing applications and recent developments. To demonstrate the evaluation of economic and social programmes by microsimulation, two examples concerning a dynamic (cross-section and life-cycle) microsimulation of the German retirement pension reform and a combined static/dynamic microsimulation of the recent German tax reform with its behavioural impacts on formal and informal economic activities of private households are briefly described. Evaluating the evaluation of economic and social programmes with microsimulation models finally is followed by concluding remarks about some future developments.microsimulation, evaluation of economic and social-political programms

Time Use and Time Budge. Improvements, Future Challenges and Recommendations

“Time-use statistics offer a unique tool for exploring a wide range of policy concerns including social change; division of labour; allocation of time for household work; the estimation of the value of household production; transportation; leisure and recreation; pension plans; and health-care programmes, among others” (United Nations). This expertise will discuss recent developments, improvements and future challenges of time use and time budgets for policy and research with focus on international and in particular German national developments 2000+ in the sequel of the last German KVI commission report on the improvement of the information infrastructure between sciences and statistics. Topics are: recent :international time use institutions, data archives and surveys; German time use data bases and their access, actual time use research fields and studies; time use and economic and social policy; new methods in time use survey sampling, future developments and European and international challenges. The conclusions recommend first of all a new German Time Use Survey GTUS 2011/12 and urgently calls for its financing and start of organisation. Specific GTUS improvements, SOEP time use issues, a brand new time use panel and a permanent establishment of the German research data centres (RDCs) are recommended in addition.Time use, time budget and time use surveys, time use data

Time Use Dynamics in Paid Work and Household Activities of Married Women - A Panel Analysis with Household Information and Regional Labour Demand

The dynamics of multiple time use in paid work and in household activities with housework, child rearing and DIY of married women are analyzed with a two step procedure: the estimation of the participation decision in intertemporal labor force participation strategies (entering, leaving the labor market, permanently employed and not employed) by a multinomial logit approach is followed by a selectivity bias corrected simultaneous hours equations systems (C3SLS) estimation of the determinants of hours supplied in multiple time use activities. Microdata base is the German Socio-Economic Panel with four waves (1984-1987), where information of the household - including the husband's employment situation - is merged with regional economic and local labour demand indicators.Dynamics of multiple time use, market and non-market activities, female labour supply, multiple longitudinal labor and activity supply of married women, panel analysis with regional information, selectivity bias corrected simultaneous equations system estimation of multiple time use

The Distribution of Income of Self-employed, Entrepreneurs and Professions as Revealed from Micro Income Tax Statistics in Germany

As simple as it is, results describing the world are heavily dependent on the quality of the underlying data. One of the very crucial variables in microanalytical analyses of well-being and human resources is income. The more, when the situation of the self-employed is regarded. This paper focus on the distribution of income based on very sound data: the German Income Tax Statistic (Einkommensteuerstatistik) 1992. New is the actual possibility to use for the first time such a sound microdatabase to analyze the self-employed in particular: a 100.000 microdata sample of the population wide German Income Tax Statistic. New is the comparison between income from dependent and self-employed work with emphasis on the entrepreneurs and professions, and new is the indepth decomposition inequality analysis of the aggregated groups and of the single professions based on an inequality generalized entropy decomposition approach. One overall striking result is: the occupational status as an employee, entrepreneur or as a profession with its connected low between inequality share is by far not the overall driving factor to ‘explain’ the overall income distribution and inequality picture of the re-unified Germany; it is the within group inequality which counts in particular.Income distribution of self-employed, entrepreneurs, professions, income tax statistics, microanalysis, decomposition of inequality

MICSIM : Concept, Developments and Applications of a PC-Microsimulation Model for Research and Teaching

It is the growing societal interest about the individual and its behaviour in our and 'modern' societies which is asking for microanalyses about the individual situation. In order to allow these microanalyses on a quantitative and empirically based level microsimulation models were developed and increasingly used for economic and social policy impact analyses. Though microsimulation is known and applied (mainly by experts), an easy to use and powerful PC microsimulation model is hard to find. The overall aim of this study and of MICSIM - A PC Microsimulation Model is to describe and offer such a user-friendly and powerful general microsimulation model for (almost) any PC, to support the impact microanalyses both in applied research and teaching. Above all, MICSIM is a general microdata handler for a wide range of typical microanalysis requirements. This paper presents the concept, developments and applications of MICSIM. After some brief remarks on microsimulation characteristics in general, the concept and substantive domains of MICSIM: the simulation, the adjustment and aging, and the evaluation of microdata, are described by its mode of operation in principle. The realisations and developments of MICSIM then are portrayed by the different versions of the computer program. Some MICSIM applications and experiences in research and teaching are following with concluding remarks.Economic and Social Policy Analyses, Microsimulation (dynamic and static), Simulation, Adjustment and Evaluation of Microdata, PC Computer Program for Microanalyses in General

Time Use Dynamics in Paid Work and Household Activities of Married Women - A Panel Analysis with Household Information and Regional Labour Demand

The dynamics of multiple time use in paid work and in household activities with housework, child rearing and DIY of married women are analyzed with a two step procedure: the estimation of the participation decision in intertemporal labor force participation strategies (entering, leaving the labor market, permanently employed and not employed) by a multinomial logit approach is followed by a selectivity bias corrected simultaneous hours equations systems (C3SLS) estimation of the determinants of hours supplied in multiple time use activities. Microdata base is the German Socio-Economic Panel with four waves (1984-1987), where information of the household - including the husband's employment situation - is merged with regional economic and local labour demand indicators.Dynamics of multiple time use, market and non-market activities, female labour supply, multiple longitudinal labor and activity supply of married women, panel analysis with regional information, selectivity bias corrected simultaneous equations system estimation of multiple time use

Time Use and Time Budgets: Improvements, Future Challenges and Recommendations

"Time-use statistics offer a unique tool for exploring a wide range of policy concerns including social change; division of labour; allocation of time for household work; the estimation of the value of household production; transportation; leisure and recreation; pension plans; and health-care programmes, among others" (United Nations). This expertise will discuss recent developments, improvements and future challenges of time use and time budgets for policy and research with focus on international and in particular German national developments. It is written in the sequel of the last German KVI commission report on the improvement of the information infrastructure between sciences and statistics. Topics are: recent international time use institutions, data archives and surveys; German time use data bases and their access, actual time use research fields and studies; time use and economic and social policy; new methods in time use survey sampling, future developments and European and international challenges. The conclusions recommend first of all a new German Time Use Survey GTUS 2011/12 and urgently calls for its financing and start of organisation. Specific GTUS improvements, SOEP time use issues, a brand new time use panel and a permanent establishment of the German research data centres (RDCs) are recommended in addition.time use, time budgets and time use surveys, time use data

Time Use and Time Budgets – Improvements, Future Challenges and Recommendations

“Time-use statistics offer a unique tool for exploring a wide range of policy concerns including social change; division of labour; allocation of time for household work; the estimation of the value of household production; transportation; leisure and recreation; pension plans; and health-care programmes, among others” (United Nations). This expertise will discuss recent developments, improvements and future challenges of time use and time budgets for policy and research with focus on international and in particular German national developments. It is written in the sequel of the last German KVI commission report on the improvement of the information infrastructure between sciences and statistics. Topics are: recent :international time use institutions, data archives and surveys; German time use data bases and their access, actual time use research fields and studies; time use and economic and social policy; new methods in time use survey sampling, future developments and European and international challenges. The conclusions recommend first of all a new German Time Use Survey GTUS 2011/12 and urgently calls for its financing and start of organisation. Specific GTUS improvements, SOEP time use issues, a brand new time use panel and a permanent establishment of the German research data centres (RDCs) are recommended in addition.Time use, time budgets and time use surveys, time use data