Unemployment Duration and the Length of Entitlement Periods for Unemployment Benefits: Do the Iab Employment Subsample and the German Socio-Economic Panel Yield the Same Results?

43 Pages Posted: 14 Mar 2005

See all articles by Martin Biewen

Martin Biewen

University of Tuebingen; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Ralf A. Wilke

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Economics; Center for European Economic Research (ZEW); Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

Abstract

We compare information on the length of unemployment spells contained in the IAB employment subsample (IABS) and in the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Due to the lack of information on registered unemployment in the IABS, we use two proxies of unemployment in the IABS as introduced by Fitzenberger/Wilke (2004). The first proxy comprises all periods of nonemployment after an employment spell which contain at least one period with unemployment compensation transfers. The second proxy includes all episodes between two employment spells during which an individual continuously received unemployment benefits. Estimation of standard duration models indicates that conclusions drawn from the IABS and the GSOEP differ in many cases. While the GSOEP suggests that the hazard rate has a maximum at about 12 months of unemployment, the IABS results suggest that this maximum is at about 20 months. Contrary to our GSOEP results and contrary to many results based on the GSOEP found in the literature, we find a statistically significant association between longer maximum entitlement periods of unemployment benefits ('Arbeitslosengeld') and longer unemployment durations for men in the IABS. The results for women do not show such clear patterns. The large sample size of the IABS also allows one to trace out statistically significant effects of characteristics such as regional and industry indicators, which is generally not possible in the relatively small GSOEP.

Keywords: unemployment duration, duration analysis, unemployment insurance, administrative data

JEL Classification: C24, J64, J65

Suggested Citation

Biewen, Martin and Wilke, Ralf A., Unemployment Duration and the Length of Entitlement Periods for Unemployment Benefits: Do the Iab Employment Subsample and the German Socio-Economic Panel Yield the Same Results?. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=677221

Martin Biewen (Contact Author)

University of Tuebingen ( email )

Eberhard Karls Universität
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz
Tübingen, 72074
Germany

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Ralf A. Wilke

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Economics ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg C, DK - 2000
Denmark

Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB) ( email )

Regensburger Str. 104
Nuremberg, 90478
Germany

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