Social Assistance and Working Poverty: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Institutional Design in Germany and Turkey

İsmail Akgül*

Gazi University Medical, Faculty Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye

*Corresponding Author: İsmail Akgül, Gazi University Medical, Faculty Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye.

Received: August 25, 2025; Published: September 16, 2025

Abstract

Objective: This study conceptualizes working poverty as an institutional equilibrium located at the intersection of the wage floor, work intensity, household composition, and the tax–transfer architecture. Using harmonized microdata from Germany and Turkey, it examines the relationship between social assistance, working poverty, and health [1-4].

Methods: Effective marginal tax rates (EMTR) and participation tax rates (PTR) are microsimulated from tax–benefit rules [5] and integrated with panel fixed effects, multi-period difference-in-differences/event study designs [6], and threshold-neighborhood RDD/IV strategies [7,8]. Health mechanisms are tested within a causal mediation framework—food insecurity, out-of-pocket medical spending, and job stress/sleep [9,10]. Measurement attends to equivalized income, PPP adjustments, and alternative poverty thresholds [11].

Findings (directional): Greater transfer generosity lowers the probability of in-work at-risk-of-poverty (AROP_work), whereas high EMTR corridors weaken incentives at the participation and hours margins [5,12,13]. In Germany, the 2015 national minimum wage establishes a protective floor at the bottom of the distribution [14,15]; in Turkey, informality and take-up frictions render effects heterogeneous [16,17]. Adverse health patterns are partially mediated by food insecurity and stress/sleep pathways, consistent with demand–control and effort–reward imbalance gradients [18-21]. Effects are stronger for women and second earners [22-24].

Conclusion: A policy bundle targeting the Income–Time–Care–Security (ITCS) axes—wage floor and inclusive collective bargaining; low-EMTR corridors/Second-Earner Neutrality; care infrastructure/parental leave; and automatic/simple one-stop enrollment—effectively reduces working poverty and associated health inequalities [5,12,14,17,24-26].

 Keywords: Working Poverty; Social Assistance; Tax–Benefit Microsimulation; Effective Marginal and Participation Tax Rates (EMTR, PTR); Minimum Wage; Non-Take-Up; Food Insecurity; Causal Mediation Analysis; Health Inequalities; Germany and Turkey

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Citation

Citation: İsmail Akgül. “Social Assistance and Working Poverty: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Institutional Design in Germany and Turkey”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 9.10 (2025): 45-56.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 İsmail Akgül. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.