Welfare Sanctions and Deprivation in Germany : Do First Sanctions Lead to Higher Levels of Deprivation Among the Long-Term Unemployed and Recipients of Basic Income Support?
Faculty/Professorship: | Methods of Empirical Social Research |
Author(s): | Löwe, Paul ![]() |
Publisher Information: | Bamberg : Otto-Friedrich-Universität |
Year of publication: | 2022 |
Pages: | 19 |
Source/Other editions: | Journal of social policy : the journal of the Social Policy Association, (2022), 19 S. - ISSN: 1469-7823 |
is version of: | 10.1017/S0047279421000994 |
Year of first publication: | 2022 |
Language(s): | English |
Licence: | Creative Commons - CC BY - Attribution 4.0 International |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-545373 |
Abstract: | In Germany, as in many other European countries, vast changes in the welfare regime – towards workfare – have taken place. As a central activating element of workfare, sanctions were introduced to take effect by temporarily increasing deprivation through benefit cuts. This paper provides first quantitative insights on the effect of first sanctions on deprivation and contributes to the recent debate on the (un)constitutionality of sanctions, which re-emerged after a verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court, criticizing the lack of knowledge about the effects of sanctions on those affected. We implement a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach that addresses selection on observables and individual time constant unobserved differences. High data accuracy is ensured by combining the “Panel Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS) with administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency. The results illustrate a slightly higher yet statistically insignificant level of deprivation for first-sanctioned unemployment/basic income recipients compared to non-sanctioned recipients. The results hint in the direction that higher levels of deprivation are not what activates the sanctioned beneficiaries to reintegrate into the labour market. We discuss whether the results imply a significant deviation from the socio-cultural subsistence minimum of sanctioned recipients and a failure of the welfare state |
GND Keywords: | Deutschland; Arbeitslosengeld II; Sanktion; Langzeitarbeitsloser; Soziale Deprivation |
Keywords: | Sanction, Deprivation, Poverty, Welfare State, Active Labour Market Policies, Difference-in-differences Propsensity Score Matching |
DDC Classification: | 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
RVK Classification: | MS 5350 |
Type: | Article |
URI: | https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/54537 |
Release Date: | 14. July 2022 |
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University of Bamberg
University of Bamberg