Activation Policies in Germany: From Status Protection to Basic Income Support

Konle‐Seidl, Regina; Eichhörst, Werner; Grienberger-Zingerle, Maria

doi:10.2139/ssrn.955860

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…For examining heterogeneity across different partnership contexts, we rely on rich German panel data. One reason for choosing Germany is its implementation of activating labor market policies between 2003 and 2005 (see Eichhorst et al 2010). The introduced benefit schemes contain various elements of activation, including shortened maximum receipt duration of unemployment benefits, mandatory participation in vocational integration measures, and the possibility of sanctions for non-compliance.…”

Section: Shelter From the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer Well-being Co...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shelter from the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer the Well-Being Costs of Unemployment?

Prechsl¹,

Wolbring²

2022

Preprint

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This paper contributes to the existing literature on the effects of unemployment on subjective well-being (SWB) by partnership status. We argue that material and latent deprivation can explain effects of unemployment on SWB by partnership status, as both partners and their employment status crucially shape the extent of deprivation. To test our hypothesis about partner-specific unemployment effects on SWB and the mediating roles of latent deprivation (in terms of status loss) and of material deprivation, we use fourteen waves of German panel data. To identify time-varying unemployment effects, we rely on time-distributed fixed effects models. Our results suggest a strong negative and rather time-constant impact of unemployment on SWB, buffered over time for those with working or non-working partners. Further, our results indicate material deprivation and status loss to be relevant mechanisms for explaining partner-specific trajectories in the loss of SWB.

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Section: Shelter From the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer Well-being Co...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shelter from the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer the Well-Being Costs of Unemployment?

Prechsl¹,

Wolbring²

2022

Preprint

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“…An entirely new system was created in response. It replaced the highly fractured provision of social assistance and unemployment assistance across federal states with a nationwide means‐tested welfare programme (Eichhorst et al, 2008). The new system, termed Unemployment Benefit II (UB II), has become a core component of the German welfare state since then.…”

Section: Sanctions In the German Welfare Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The system is set up to place benefit recipients in jobs which require contributions to all major social insurance programme including unemployment, long‐term care, sickness, work accident and old‐age (‘versicherungspflichte Beschäftigung’) 1 . It thus aims to transfer citizens from the tax‐funded to the insurance‐based social protection and minimise the risk of re‐entry into public welfare (Eichhorst et al, 2008).…”

Section: Sanctions In the German Welfare Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This argument can be further strengthened when considering the main goal of case management in this context. All activation measures (including sanctions) are designed to enable a transfer from needs‐based to insurance‐based social protection (Eichhorst et al, 2008). Cutting payments might endanger this goal for newcomers as it increases incentives to accept any job possible rather than to strive for one with social insurance coverage.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protected against all odds? A mixed‐methods study on the risk of welfare sanctions for immigrants in Germany

2021

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Sanctions are payment cuts that case managers implement in order to discipline welfare recipients. Previous research suggests that immigrants face a particularly high risk to receive such reductions, primarily due to the prevalence of stereotyping in street‐level bureaucracy. The study contributes to this literature with help of a triangulation between in‐depth interviews, survey data and administrative records for the case of the German social assistance system. Our findings indicate that immigrants tend to be sanctioned at a lower rate than other benefit recipients in this context, especially if they arrived at the country only recently on grounds of international protection. This finding can be explained by the importance of reciprocity and control in the country's ‘Bismarckian’ welfare state. Our qualitative data shows that case managers exert a considerable level of agency over the implementation process. This discretion is, on the one hand, used to discipline benefit recipients who are perceived as having contributed little to the welfare system as a whole through taxes and social insurance contributions. Those who are considered to have limited control over their labour market position, on the other hand, are given a certain degree of leeway. We therefore conclude, against the background of the current street‐level bureaucracy literature, that immigration can also act as a deservingness cue in means‐tested social assistance, given that the benefit system is embedded into a welfare regime in which labour market participation, work‐testing and social insurance contributions are the dominating principles of eligibility.

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“…Receipt duration is usually limited to 12 months; in addition, households below a certain income level are eligible for welfare benefits both within and after this period (for a detailed description, see Eichhorst et al 2010;Kemmerling and Bruttel 2006). Studies show that generous unemployment benefits and strict labor market regulations prevent individuals from downward mobility and buffer negative consequences such as a loss of income due to unemployment (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective Well-Being Scarring Through Unemployment: New Evidence from a Long-Running Panel

2022

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Scarring effects of unemployment on subjective well-being (SWB), i.e., negative effects that remain even after workers reenter employment, are well documented in the literature. Nevertheless, the theoretical mechanisms by which unemployment leads to long-lasting negative consequences for SWB are still under debate. Thus, we theorize that unemployment can have an enduring impact mainly through (1) the experience of unemployment as an incisive life event and (2) unemployment as a driver of future unemployment. In the empirical part, we focus on one important dimension of SWB: overall life satisfaction. Based on advanced longitudinal modeling that controls for group-specific trends, we estimate scarring through unemployment using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our results consistently show a large negative effect of unemployment on life satisfaction as well as significant scarring effects that last at least 5 years after reemployment for both men and women as well as for short- and long-term unemployment spells. Further analyses reveal that repeated periods of unemployment drive these effects and cause even longer lasting scarring, implying that there are hardly any adaptations to unemployment that buffer its effect on life satisfaction. We conclude that scarring effects mainly work through repeated episodes of unemployment. Regarding policy implications, our findings suggest that preventing unemployment, regardless of its duration, is beneficial for individual well-being not only in the short term.

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Activation Policies in Germany: From Status Protection to Basic Income Support

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

Shelter from the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer the Well-Being Costs of Unemployment?

Shelter from the Storm: Do Partnerships Buffer the Well-Being Costs of Unemployment?

Protected against all odds? A mixed‐methods study on the risk of welfare sanctions for immigrants in Germany

Subjective Well-Being Scarring Through Unemployment: New Evidence from a Long-Running Panel

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