German Constitutional Court looking for scientist to learn if constitutionally guaranteed subsistence level of Hartz 4 could be reduced by 60%

Are you a scientist? If yes, we, the German Constitutional Court @BVerfG would like to hear from you.#HartzIV

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

"So far, the effectiveness of this reduction in performance has not been adequately researched either with regard to the immediate goal of attaining participation or with regard to special or general preventive effects". (recital 193)

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

You may as well drop by our fancy digs in Karlsruhe and, please, do not feel ashamed or misplaced when you see us in our solemn attire. As Beau Brummell said: “Fashions come and go; bad taste is timeless.” pic.twitter.com/GVA0j1QClh

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

This Merkel nagging has to stop. She deserves some credit.

This Merkel nagging has to stop.
She deserves some credit. pic.twitter.com/kCgNlcaBwN

— Straussian Obfuscator (@ErebusSagace) December 10, 2018

Risk of poverty from 2005 to 2017

What a coincidence. The Bertelsmann Foundation has a study according to which a family with kid and single earner is at risk of poverty. (German language)

The result of that study raises the question of another study:

The Mommy Effect: Do Women Anticipate the Employment Effects of Motherhood?

After decades of convergence, the gender gap in employment outcomes has recently plateaued in many rich countries, despite the fact that women have increased their investment in human capital over this period. We propose a hypothesis to reconcile these two trends: that when they are making key human capital decisions, women in modern cohorts underestimate the impact of motherhood on their future labor supply. Using an event-study framework, we show substantial and persistent employment effects of motherhood in U.K. and U.S. data. We then provide evidence that women do not anticipate these effects. Upon becoming parents, women (and especially more educated women) adopt more negative views toward female employment (e.g., they are more likely to say that women working hurts family life), suggesting that motherhood serves as an information shock to their beliefs. Women on average (and, again, more educated women in particular) report that parenthood is harder than they expected. We then look at longer horizons—are young women's expectations about future labor supply correct when they make their key educational decisions? In fact, female high school seniors are increasingly and substantially overestimating the likelihood they will be in the labor market in their thirties, a sharp reversal from previous cohorts who substantially underestimated their future labor supply. Finally, we specify a model of women's choice of educational investment in the face of uncertain employment costs of motherhood, which demonstrates that our results can be reconciled only if these costs increased unexpectedly across generations. We end by documenting a collage of empirical evidence consistent with such a trend.

Lesbian couples have greater vulnerability to poverty

POVERTY IN US LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLE HOUSEHOLDS

Alyssa Schneebaum and M. V. Lee Badgett

ABSTRACT

Poverty is a widely researched topic in economics. However, despite growing research on the economic lives of lesbians and gay men in the United States since the mid 1990s, very little is known about poverty in same-sex couple households. This study uses American Community Survey data from 2010 to 2014 to calculate poverty rates for households headed by different-sex versus same-sex couples. Comparing households with similar characteristics, the results show that those headed by same-sex couples are more likely to be in poverty than those headed by different-sex married couples. Despite that overall disadvantage, a decomposition of the poverty risk shows that same-sex couples are protected from poverty by their higher levels ofeducation and labor force participation, and their lower probability of having a child in the home. Lastly, the role of gender – above and beyond sexual orientation – is clear in the greater vulnerability to poverty for lesbian couples.

Interesting that lesbians live in more rural areas.

Increasing the benefits of characteristics that reduce poverty: 

The decompositions show that same-sex couples are more likely to be poor in the basic predictive model because they do not get as much protective value, or returns, to characteristics that reduce poverty. The one clear factor that hurts lesbians, in particular, is living in more rural areas, where people may have more negative attitudes toward LGBT people.

Unmarried different-sex couples more likely to be poor.

Lesbians are most likely to be in poverty, confirming the expectations laid out earlier in the paper; they are 2.4 percentage points more likely to be in poverty than different-sex married couples. Gay couples are 1 percentage point more likely to be in poverty than different-sex married couples. Unmarried different-sex couples are 2.1 percentage points more likely to be poor than married different-sex couples.

more here

CDU Minister of health, Jens Spahn, said: "Hartz IV does not mean poverty"

Let's see.

The latest Eurostat data (February 26, 2018) – Almost half the unemployed at risk of monetary poverty in the EU.

The performance of Germany is particularly interesting given it is held out as the ‘engine-room’ of the Eurozone. Overall, it has endured the second largest deterioration over the period (5.9 percentage points). Spain had the largest deterioration (6.6 percentage points).

While Germany was the 8th worst nation in the sample on this measure, it produced the largest shift in the indicator – from 4.8 per cent to 7.1 per cent of employed persons at risk of poverty. No doubt this is partly due to the rise of the Minijobs after the Hartz changes.

Finally, the next graph shows the ‘at risk’ data for those who were unemployed in 2005 and 2016. Germany stands out, with a massive 70.8 per cent of its unemployed ‘at risk of poverty’.

Full post at Bill Mitchell.

Poverty among the unemployed now close to 50 per cent in the EU

Yes! A huge export surplus of Germany mirrored by a massive 70.8 per cent of its unemployed ‘at risk of poverty’

Good golly, and the Germans just voted for the same government that made this possible. Relax, "this time it's different".

Bill Mitchell has a post based on Eurostat data.

Last week, Eurostat released it updated data covering people who are at risk of monetary poverty. In the press release/news page (February 26, 2018) – Almost half the unemployed at risk of monetary poverty in the EU – we learn that 48.7 per cent of unemployed persons in the EU “were at risk of poverty” in 2016, even “after social transfers” were taken into account. The situation has deteriorated significantly since 2005 as a result of the impacts of the GFC and the policy response taken by the European Commission and the Member States (under the EC’s thumb). While the usual suspects perform badly on these indicators (Spain, Greece, Italy), a stark result is that 70.8 per cent of German unemployed persons are at risk of poverty. This proportion has jumped from 40.9 per cent in 2005 (a 29.9 percentage point shift). So, even in the strongest Eurozone economy, the policy frameworks are delivering terrible outcomes. Increasing divergence and inequality and rising social exclusion are the most striking characteristics of the 13 years of European Union history since 2005. It doesn’t look like a policy bloc that any sensible nation should aspire to be part off (or remain within).

The performance of Germany is particularly interesting given it is held out as the ‘engine-room’ of the Eurozone. Overall, it has endured the second largest deterioration over the period (5.9 percentage points). Spain had the largest deterioration (6.6 percentage points).

Eurostat

Full post at Bill Mitchell with more graphs.