Time, income and subjective well-being - Interdependent multidimensional polarization: 20 Years in Germany

Arbeitspapier

Society drifts apart in many dimensions. Economists focus on income of the poor and rich and the distribution of income, however a broader spectrum of dimensions is required to draw the picture of multiple facets of individual life. In our study of multidimensional polarization we extend the income dimension by time, a pre-requisite and fundamental resource of any individual activity. We consider genuine personal leisure time as a pronounced source of social participation in the sense of social inclusion/exclusion and Amartya Sen's capability approach. With an interdependence approach to multidimensional (IMD) polarization compensation between time and income, parameters of a CES-type subjective well-being function, is evaluated empirically by the German population and based on German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and detailed time use diary data from the three German Time Use Surveys (GTUS) 1991/92, 2001/02 and the actual 2012/13. The focus is on the working poor and rich self-employed and employees. The background of IMD polarization incidence (risk) and intensity (magnitude) is estimated by a two-stage selectivity controlling approach. Main result: Time, additional to income, is a significant subjective well-being and polarization dimension. Its interdependence/compensation is of economic and statistical significance. Over 20 years IMD Polarization-incidence (risk) is about 20% (self-employed getting poorer compared to employees). Polarization-intensity (magnitude), however, increased significantly by 22% (stronger polarization of the self-employed), a distinct polarization drift to the tail ends of the distribution of time and income.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: FFB Diskussionspapier ; No. 109

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: Interdependente multidimensionale Polarisierung ; genuine persönliche Freizeit ; Einkommen ; arme und reiche Erwerbstätige (working poor) ; Zufriedenheit ; minimale multidimensionale Polarisierungsintensitätslücke (2DGAP) ; Soziale Partizipation ; zweistufige Heckman-Schätzungen der Polarisierungsinzidenz (Risiko) und -intensität (Ausmaß) ; Deutsches Sozio-oekonomisches Panel (SOEP) ; Deutsche Zeitbudgetstudien 1991/92, 2001/02 and 2012/13 ; Interdependent multidimensional polarization ; genuine personal leisure time ; income ; working poor and affluent ; subjective well-being ; minimum multidimensional polarization intensity gap (2DGAP) ; social participation ; two-stage Heckman estimates of polarization incidence (risk) and intensity (magnitude) ; German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) ; German Time Use Surveys 1991/92, 2001/02 and 2012/13

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Merz, Joachim ; Scherg, Bettina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)
• (where): Lüneburg
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/278159
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET