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Marginal employment for welfare recipients: stepping stone or obstacle?

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  • Lietzmann, Torsten
  • Schmelzer, Paul
  • Wiemers, Jürgen

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.

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  • Lietzmann, Torsten & Schmelzer, Paul & Wiemers, Jürgen, 2017. "Marginal employment for welfare recipients: stepping stone or obstacle?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 394-414.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:200398
    DOI: 10.1111/labr.12098
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    2. Mosthaf, Alexander & Schank, Thorsten & Schwarz, Stefan, 2021. "Do Supplementary Jobs for Welfare Recipients Increase the Chance of Welfare Exit? Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 14268, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Umkehrer, Matthias, 2020. "Wiedereinstieg nach Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit: Welche Arbeitsverhältnisse sind stabil, welche nicht? (Labour market re-integration after long-term unemployment: Which employment relationships are stabl," IAB-Kurzbericht 202015, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Jacob Nielsen Arendt & Henrik Lindegaard Andersen & Morten Saaby, 2020. "The Relationship between Active Labor Market Programs and Employability of the Long‐Term Unemployed," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(2), pages 154-175, June.
    5. Stefan Tübbicke, 2023. "How sensitive are matching estimates of active labor market policy effects to typically unobserved confounders?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Rainer Eppel & Helmut Mahringer, 2019. "Getting a lot out of a little bit of work? The effects of marginal employment during unemployment," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 381-408, May.
    7. Helena Breth Nielsen & Kathrine Pape & Laura Stonor Gregersen & Jonas Kirchheiner-Rasmussen & Johnny Dyreborg & Anna Ilsøe & Trine Pernille Larsen & Jacob Pedersen & Anne Helene Garde, 2022. "Labor Market Affiliation of Marginal Part-Time Workers in Denmark—A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Wolf, Tobias, 2020. "Welfare while working: How does the life satisfaction approach help to explain job search behavior?," Discussion Papers 2020/14, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.

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