Search

For some years now the German Government has been imposing increasingly strict job search requirements on unemployed people. One aim of current policy is to ensure that, if citizens accept unemployment benefits, they must actively search for work. Clearly, case managers try to match jobs to the qualifications of their clients, but it is generally required that individuals must take any job they are capable of doing, or risk losing benefits. One implied and sometimes stated justification for the requirement is that, once a person enters or re-enters the job market, he/she may have an improved chance of finding a better paying or more satisfying job, compared with someone who remains unemployed. Simply put, the idea is that any job is better than none, that 'bad' jobs may lead to 'good' jobs, or at least to 'better' jobs.

It is widely assumed that since income is usually found to account for a relatively small proportion of the variance across individuals in self-reported well-being, money does not matter for personal happiness. This hypothesis is re-examined in this paper by including measures of household wealth alongside the more usual household income measure in regression equations of life satisfaction. Using data drawn from four large population surveys from four different countries,evidence is found indicating that wealth generally matters at least as much as income. It is thus concluded that economic circumstances explain more of the variation in individual well-being than previously thought. Nevertheless, the size of these wealth and income effects is still small.

Auf der empirischen Grundlage des sozio-ökonomischen Panels von 1984 bis 1989 werden Aussagen zur Armut in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland getroffen. Dabei wird ein relatives Armutskonzept verwendet, das Armut im Vergleich zum Bevölkerungsdurchschnitt erfaßt. Nach den Ergebnissen erscheint die Bundesrepublik als eine '75-15-10-Gesellschaft': -75 Prozent aller Personen waren während des Untersuchungszeitraums von sechs Jahren niemals arm; -15 Prozent waren kurzfristig arm, bei insgesamt noch akzeptablem Einkommen; -10 Prozent waren in dem genannten Zeitraum häufig oder dauerhaft arm, bei insgesamt geringem Einkommen. Ein enger Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitslosigkeit und Armut wird nur teilweise bestätigt. Dies wird u.a. darauf zurückgeführt, daß Armut auch durch Lebensereignisse wie Krankheit und Scheidung verursacht wird, die unabhängig von der Dynamik des Arbeitsmarktes sind. (IAB2)