We examine the impact of family income during childhood on the type of secondary school that German children attend, a good indicator of their lifetime socioeconomic attainment. By contrast with several US child outcome studies, we find that late-childhood income is a more important determinant...

Two conversion schemes are usually employed for assessing personal-income inequality from household equivalent incomes: to weight household units by size or by needs.Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study, we show the sensitivity of country inequality rankings to conversion schemes and...

Standard household economics assumes that couples pool their incomes and share the sum equally, which is a necessary prerequisite for computing equivalent incomes and hence all statements about the distribution of personal incomes and income poverty. However, since cohabitation without marriage...

In view of rising wage and income inequality, the introduction of a legal minimum wage has recently become an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of a nationwide legal minimum wage of 7.50 € per hour on the basis of a microsimulation model which accounts...

Nach den Ergebnissen des ersten Armuts- und Reichtumsberichts der Bundesregierung ist das Armutsrisiko von Kindern unter 18 Jahren wesentlich höher als das anderer Altersgruppen. Um die überdurchschnittliche hohe Sozialhilfequote von Kindern zu senken, regten Bündnis 90/Die Grünen im...

This paper explores a novel way to analyse poverty dynamics that are specific to certain measures of multidimensional poverty, such as the "adjusted headcount ratio" proposed by Alkire & Foster (2011a). Assuming there is panel data available, I show that a simultaneous and comprehensive account...

Income inequality and poverty risks receive a lot of attention in public debates and current research. However, the situation of families that differ in size and composition is rarely considered more closely in this context. Relevant research typically relies on equivalence scales to make income...

Equivalence Scales are a tool for removing the heterogeneity of household sizes in the measurement of inequality, and affect poverty assessments and poverty lines. We address the disadvantage that poor households may suffer due to their reduced ability to share goods within the household. This...

A popular argument for a federal minimum wage is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this assertion for Germany, a welfare state with a relative generous means-tested social minimum and high marginal tax rates. Our analysis is based on a microsimulation...

There is by now a lot of evidence showing a sharp increase in cross-sectional wage and earnings inequality during the 2000s in Germany. Our study is the first to decompose this cross-sectional variance into its permanent and transitory parts for years beyond 2000. Using data from the German...