Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science. Terms of use: Documents inThe decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly. We present first estimates of rates of non-take-up for social assistance in Germany after the implementation of major social policy reforms in 2005. The analysis is based on a microsimulation model, which includes a detailed description of the German social assistance programme. Our findings suggest a moderate decrease in non-takeup compared to estimates before the reform. In order to identify the determinants of claiming social assistance, we estimate a model of take-up behaviour which considers potential endogeneity of the benefit level. The estimations reveal that the degree of needs, measured as the social assistance benefit level a household is eligible for, and the expected duration of eligibility are the key determinants of the take-up decision, while costs of claiming seem to play a minor role.JEL Classification: I38, H31, C15

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The international literature studies non-take-up behavior of eligible populations to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs. A major challenge in this literature is the measurement error regarding benefit take-up. In our data, we observe both actual welfare receipt and respondents’ survey information on their program take-up. This allows us to observe the measurement errors that other researchers must estimate. We describe survey misreporting and investigate how it biases the estimates of the magnitude and patterns of benefit take-up among eligible households. Our findings suggest that the extent of measurement error can be substantial. It varies with the characteristics of the misreporting population and is associated with the drivers of misreporting. This indicates that survey-based analyses of take-up behavior are likely subject to severe biases.

Abstract. Marginal employment (ME) is one of the largest forms of atypical employment in Germany. We analyse whether ME has a 'stepping stone' function for unemployed individuals, i.e., whether ME increases the subsequent probability of regular employment. We find differing treatment effects by unemployment duration. According to our results, ME increases the likelihood of regular employment within a 3-year observation period only for those who take up ME several months after beginning to receive benefits. In contrast, for those starting ME within the first months of receiving benefits, there is no effect on the probability of regular employment. Although we took several measures to minimize the impact of unobserved heterogeneity, our results can only be interpreted as causal if the conditional independence assumption holds.

Research on welfare participation often shows significant differences between immigrants and natives that are often attributed to immigrants' higher risk of welfare dependence. We study whether immigrants in Germany also differ from their German counterparts in their take-up behavior conditional on being eligible for welfare benefits. The empirical approach intends (i) to determine eligibility for welfare benefits for a representative sample of the whole population of Germany using a microsimulation model (IAB-STSM) based on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel (GSOEP) and then (ii) to estimate probit models of observed welfare benefit take-up for the sample of eligible households. Our simulation results show that non take-up rates do not differ significantly between several groups of immigrants and natives. Additionally, the probit estimations do not reveal a significant effect of being a migrant on the probability to take up entitlements. Hence, our findings suggest that after controlling for observed and unobserved household characteristics immigrants are not more prone to take up welfare benefits. Zusammenfassung Eine Vielzahl von Studien kommt zum Ergebnis, dass Migranten anteilig deutlich häufiger Sozialleistungen beziehen als Einheimische, was häufig damit erklärt wird, dass Einwanderer ein höheres Risiko aufweisen, bedürftig zu sein. Wir untersuchen in diesem Papier, ob Migranten und Einheimische, die einen grundsätzlichen Anspruch auf Leistungen der Grundsicherung aufweisen, diesen Anspruch in unterschiedlichem Maße realisieren. Unser empirischer Ansatz besteht darin, (i) den Anspruch auf Leistungen der Grundsicherung mit Hilfe eines Mikrosimulationsmodells (IAB-STSM) zu simulieren. Datenbasis des Modells ist das Sozio-oekonomische Panel (SOEP). Auf der Anspruchssimulation aufbauend, (ii) schätzen wir Probit-Modelle des beobachteten Leistungsbezugs für die Gruppe der als anspruchsberechtigt simulierten Haushalte. Unsere Simulationsergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Quoten der Nicht-Inanspruchnahme nicht signifikant zwischen Migranten und Einheimischen unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus ist das Ergebnis unserer Probit-Modelle, dass auch unter Kontrolle beobachteter und unbeobachteter Haushaltscharakteristika kein Unterschied im Inanspruchnahmeverhalten zwischen Migranten und Einheimischen beobachtet werden kann.

Microsimulation studies typically assume that all entitlements to means-tested benefits are actually claimed by eligible households, despite a large body of research that suggests that take-up rates are substantially below 100%. The assumption of full take-up tends to exaggerate the simulated increase in caseloads and fiscal costs of a social policy reform. This paper investigates the impact of non-take-up for two hypothetical scenarios, namely increasing and decreasing the base amount of social assistance in Germany by e100 per month. We find a substantial effect of considering non-take-up on the simulated change in fiscal costs and in particular on the change in caseloads, where the full take-up assumption exaggerates the latter change by a factor of about two.

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