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Karsten Hank and Stephanie Stuck

Volunteer Work, Informal Help, and Care among the 50+ in Europe:
Further Evidence for “Linked” Productive Activities at Older Ages

Objectives - Taking a cross-national comparative perspective, we investigate linkages between
volunteer work, informal helping, and caring among Europeans aged 50 or older: Is the rela-
tionship between these activities characterized by complementarity or by substitution? Is there
evidence for the existence of (unobserved) personality traits that foster engagement independ-
ent of a specific activity? Methods - Based on 27,305 personal interviews from the 2004 Survey
of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we estimate univariate and multivariate
probit models, which allow us to analyze the interrelationship between different productive
activities and the derterminants of individuals’ engagement therein. Results - There is sub-
stantial variation in the participation in volunteering, helping, and caring between countries
and regions. Independent of the general level of activity in a country, we find evidence for a
complementary and interdependent relationship between all three activities. Discussion - Our
findings not only suggest an important role of societal opportunity structures in elders’ produc-
tive engagement, but they also support recent notions of the existence of a general motivation
for engagement in productive activities, independent of a specific domain of activity. Thus, the
study of motivations should be an important aspect of future research on productive aging.

Discussion Paper No. 733

October 2007

Joachim R. Frick and Olaf Groh-Samberg

To Claim or Not to Claim: Estimating Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance in
Germany and the Role of Measurement Error

Using representative micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the
year 2002, we analyse non-take-up behaviour of Social Assistance (SA) in Germany. According
to our simulation as much as 67 percent ofthe eligible population did not claim SA in that year
which is slightly higher than reported in previous work. We particularly emphasize the role of
measurement error in estimating non-take-up. First, we consider misspecifications of the simu-
lation model due, e.g., to households claiming to have received SA although not simulated as
eligible (“beta-error”). Second, we employ sensitivity analyses revealing the impact of measure-
ment errors in reported household income and wealth as well as in simulated needs. Misreport-
ed household incomes appear to have the greatest impact on the estimated non-take-up rates,
as shown in Monte-Carlo-type simulations. Regression analysis of the potential determinants of
non-take-up behaviour confirm that rational motives - i.e., the expected net utility from claim-
ing - as well as stigma and other barriers play a crucial role in explaining the puzzle of large
non-take-up rates of SA.

Discussion Paper No. 734

October 2007

Die Volltextversionen der Diskussionspapiere liegen als PDF-Dateien vor und konnen von den
entsprechenden Webseiten des DIW Berlin heruntergeladen werden (http://www.diw.de/deutsch/
produkte/publikationen/index.html).

The full text versions of the Discussion Papers are available in PDF format and can be downloaded
from the DIW Berlin website (http://www.diw.de/english/produkte/publikationen/index.html).

Wochenbericht des DIW Berlin Nr. 44/2007

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