1,721,033 research outputs found
Übergänge Schule-Beruf und Arbeitsmarktergebnisse
No full textThis dissertation studies the economics of post-secondary education in Germany. Considering that young adults in Germany generally take up either higher education or vocational training (or sometimes both in a sequential manner) after they finish secondary education I focus on three fundamental questions: (i) "Does higher education pay off for the individual and the state?", (ii) "How strongly do earnings expectations influence the individual's choice between higher education and vocational training?", and (iii) "What are the distributional effects of higher education funding?"
Importantly, I analyze these questions from a lifetime perspective, i.e. considering the whole life cycle of an individual instead of focusing on one particular point of the life cycle (a certain age, for instance). In addition, the perspective taken in this dissertation is forward looking, in the sense that it takes the perspective of the individuals of a young cohort and their projected life cycles. While it seems self-evident to consider a forward-looking lifetime perspective to answer the questions of interest, such a perspective has rarely been taken in the literature. Most likely a main reason is that, by nature, observable life cycle data (until retirement, for instance) do not exist for younger cohorts. Hence, in order to take a lifetime perspective of a younger cohort one needs to generate ``artificial" data reflecting a plausible life course of currently young adults. Here, a dynamic microsimulation model on the basis of the German Socio-Economic Panel (Goebel et al., 2018) is developed. The dynamic microsimulation model sequentially simulates an individual's life cycle in terms of several key variables such as employment and family formation (Li and O'Donoghue, 2013). This model is the foundation of the empirical work in this dissertation.
The first chapter, "The Private and Fiscal Returns to Higher Education – A Simulation Approach for a Young German Cohort", explains in detail how the dynamic microsimulation model works. Essentially, it first estimates transitions models for the variables that are to be simulated and then uses the estimated parameters to simulate the individual life cycles from one year to the next. In addition, it contains a tax-transfer calculator that models the German tax-transfer system and allows to compute taxes, transfers, and social security contributions. Using the dynamic microsimulation model the first chapter then estimates the private and fiscal returns to higher education. We distinguish between gross and net income and different degrees of income pooling within households. For a typical biography, we find large positive internal rates of return (IRR) for both the individual and the state. At the same time, however, we also find that a substantial share of individuals would incur negative net present values (NPV).
Chapter two, "The Decision to Enrol in Higher Education", studies the question how strongly the choice to enter higher education depends on the expectations of future income. Using the dynamic microsimulation model from chapter 1 I forecast an individual's expected life cycle given a specific educational choice. In addition to the dynamic microsimulation model and the SOEP data, I use the starting cohort 4 of the National Educational Panel Study (Blossfeld and von Maurice, 2011) that follows 9th graders until after secondary school graduation. This allows me to estimate an educational choice model where individuals maximize lifetime utility by choosing between higher education and vocational training. Using the estimated parameters from the decision model I simulate the introduction of tuition fees and graduate taxes. I find that such reforms would only induce few people to change their educational decisions.
The third chapter, "Higher Education Funding in Germany – A Distributional Lifetime Perspective", analyzes the distributional effects of higher education funding. For this I first compare the quantitative importance of different funding instruments, ranging from free tuition to subsidized health insurance for students. The analysis shows that free tuition is, by far, the most important instrument. However, there is a large heterogeneity by how much a student benefits from free tuition depending on her field of study. To connect the amount of benefits an individual receives from higher education funding, particularly free tuition, to the expected lifetime income of an individual, I use the dynamic microsimulation model and simulate the individual biographies. Finally, I use the decision model of chapter 2 and extend it to the case of multiple alternatives (with fields of study and vocational training being the alternatives). Using the estimated parameters I simulate how the choice between the fields would change under different tuition fee schemes. In line with the results of chapter 2, I find that the tuition fees would barely change the individuals' educational choices
Social Security and Labor Market in Germany
Full text linkThe first chapter examines the last series of the Hartz reform, Hartz IV, and verifies how people in the labor market react to this new system by analyzing changes in household savings. Notably, this new system was the highlight of Hartz reform in 2005 following Agenda 2010 and remarkably reduced the amount of social benefit that people in need could expect in case of hardship. Because of its radical change, it encountered strong resistance from people who were relying on benefits and changed the way German society perceives social security. With respect to this new scheme, how would people financially prepare themselves? By estimating the extent of preparation measured by the household saving rate, Chapter 1 attempts to answer this question. The last chapter moves its focus to young people and verifies how housing price after 2007 affects move-out behavior of young Germans from the parental home. It is widely known nowadays that young people, referred to as Millennials are suffering from financial concern much more than their previous generations. They tend to achieve their economic independence much later than earlier generations did, and that fact leads them to decisions over lifetime events such as moving out from the parental home, marriage, and childbirth for example. Concerning this issue, Chapter 3 notes the fact that housing market in Germany was substantially increased last decade. Although the rate of growth in house price is less steep compared to those
in other developed countries, it was quite striking for Germans who have been accustomed to stable housing prices for decades. And of course, young people are the most vulnerable age group with respect to this change. What effect do housing costs have on young Germans wanting to set up a household? To what extent are housing costs important for young people in Germany? Chapter 3 navigates throughout these questions
Three Essays on Labour and Political Economics
Full text linkDie vorliegende Dissertation setzt sich aus drei Aufsätzen zusammen: zwei im Bereich der Arbeitsmarktökonomie und einer im Bereich der politischen Ökonomie. Der erste Aufsatz untersucht die Rolle der zunehmenden Firmenheterogenität für die Stagnation des Gender Wage Gaps auf dem westdeutschen Arbeitsmarkt in den 1990er und 2000er Jahren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die steigende Firmenheterogenität während dieses Zeitraums einen Rückgang des Gender Wage Gaps um 15% bzw. 3,6 Log-Prozentpunkte verhindert hat. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Analysen, dass eine zunehmende Lohnflexibilisierung, bedingt durch einen Rückgang der Tarifbindung und wachsende Dezentralisierungs- und Flexibilisierungstendenzen innerhalb der vorhandenen Tarifbindungsregime, den Anstieg der Lohnungleichheit zwischen Betrieben und folglich die Lohnungleichheit zwischen Männern und Frauen verstärkt hat. Der zweite Aufsatz untersucht die Auswirkungen des Anfang der 1990er Jahre von Flüchtlingsmigranten verursachten, plötzlichen Anstiegs des Arbeitskräfteangebots auf Löhne und Beschäftigung der einheimischen Arbeitnehmer. Die empirischen Analysen zeigen, dass ein 1%iger Zuwachs in der Beschäftigung von Migranten mit einer Reduzierung des lokalen Lohn- und Beschäftigungswachstums in den betroffenen Regionen um durchschnittlich etwa 0,68 bzw. 1,13% einhergeht; auf längere Sicht zeigen sich indes keine negativen Auswirkungen. Zwei Drittel des lokalen Beschäftigungsrückgangs werden durch entsprechende Beschäftigungsgewinne in solchen Regionen kompensiert, die von der Flüchtlingszuwanderung nicht betroffen sind. Die Unterschiede zwischen kurz- und langfristigen Konsequenzen sowie die Umverteilung der Beschäftigung zwischen Regionen sind für die politische Evaluation der Vor- und Nachteile von Migration von Bedeutung. Der dritte Aufsatz untersucht, ob die Parteienlandschaft im Gemeinderat einen Effekt auf die Struktur von Gemeindezusammenlegungen hat, indem sie die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Wiederwahl und folglich des Machterhalts der im Amt befindlichen politischen Entscheidungsträger beeinflusst. Die empirischen Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Parteienstruktur für die Realisierung von Gemeindezusammenlegungen von Bedeutung ist.This dissertation is composed of three essays: two in the field of labour economics and one in political economics. The first essay studies the role of growing workplace heterogeneity for the stagnation of the gender pay gap on the West German labour market during the 1990s and 2000s. The analysis shows that the expansion of workplace-specific wage premiums over that time period prevented the gender wage gap from narrowing by around 15% or 3.6 log points. This effect is not driven by a relocation of men and women across high and low wage firms, but is entirely attributable to a widening in the distribution of wage premiums. The study further shows that rising wage flexibilisation, facilitated by deunionisation and decentralisation tendencies within unions, has led to higher rent-sharing elasticities, and thereby catalysed the role of workplace heterogeneity for overall inequality and the wage gap between genders. The second essay investigates the impact of a refugee-driven labour supply shock on native wages and employment. By exploiting a large and unexpected refugee wave hitting the West German labour market between 1988 and 1993, the analysis shows that an increase in local immigrant employment by 1% reduces native wages and employment by about 0.68 and 1.13%, respectively; in the longer perspective, however, these negative effects disappear. The study also shows that about two-thirds of the local employment decline is compensated by corresponding employment gains in regions not affected by immigration. Both findings—the difference between short and long run effects and the redistribution of native employment across regions — are important for the political evaluation of immigration. The third essay investigates the political determinants of municipality amalgamations. By exploiting a boundary reform in the state of Brandenburg, which reduced the number of municipalities by about 70%, the study asks whether party representation in the town council influences the structure of municipality mergers by affecting the political decision makers’ probability to remain in power. The empirical estimates suggest that political representation matters for the structure of mergers that materialise
Verbesserung des Verständnisses der Stadtökonomie durch eine verbesserte räumliche Auflösung
No full textEmpirical research in the field of urban economics benefits more from accurate spatial data than any other field of economics. Exploiting the spatial relationship between economic entities allows for generating comprehensive data sets which in turn allow for more comprehensive modelling and hypotheses testing. This disseration presents three essays on different aspects of urban economics which all largely benefit from the incorporation of highly disaggregated spatial data.
The first chapter (co-authored with Rainer Schulz, Martin Wersing and Axel Werwatz) deals with accurate estimation of land values by using an adaptive nonparametric procedure called Adaptive Weights Smoothing (AWS). Next to a detailed view on the AWS algorithm, the estimator is applied to transaction data of land sales in Berlin. Results prove the applicability of AWS in the context of housing markets.
The second chapter (co-authored with Christian Krekel and Henry Wüstemann) evaluates the impact of different land use categories on residential well-being. The study is based on an urban subsample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) comprising over 4,000 individuals and geographical data on land use from the Urban Atlas (UA) provided by the European Environmental Agency (EEA). Results show a positive relationship between urban green and well-being as well as a negative link between abandoned areas ans satisfaction with life.
In the third chapter, the potential access to primary health care in Berlin and Brandenburg is estimated using a gravity model. Findings illustrate a significant difference in accessibility comparing rural and urban areas. Furthermore, results suggest a considerable influence of the age of residents on potential access to health care. Namely, spatial units in Brandenburg with a higher share of elderly are facing a significant poorer supply level.Empirische Forschung in der Stadt- und Regionalökonomie profitiert wahrscheinlich stärker von der Nutzung akkurater räumlicher Daten als andere Felder der Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Die Ausnutzung des Umstandes, dass alle ökonomischen Akteure in einem räumlichen Verhältnis zueinander stehen, erlaubt es einzigartige Datensätze zu erstellen, was wiederum eine bessere ökonomische Modellierung und ein verbessertes Testen von Hypothesen ermöglicht. Diese Dissertation stellt drei Studien vor, die verschiedene Aspekte der Stadt- und Regionalökonomie betrachten. All diese Studien profitieren ungemein von der Einbeziehung hochaufgelöster räumlicher Daten.
Das erste Kapitel (in Ko-Autorenschaft mit Rainer Schulz, Martin Wersing und Axel Werwatz) behandelt die Schätzung von Bodenwerten mittels eines adaptiven nichtparametrischen Ansatzes genannt Adaptive Weights Smoothing (AWS). Neben einer detailierten Betrachtung des Schätzers selbst wird in einer Fallstudie die Nutzbarkeit von AWS anhand von Landverkäufen auf dem Berliner Immobilienmarkt getestet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass AWS im ökonomischen Kontext anwendbar ist.
Das zweite Kapitel (in Ko-Autorenschaft mit Christian Krekel und Henry Wüstemann) evaluiert den Einfluss von verschiedenen Landnutzungskategorien auf das Wohlbefinden. Die Studie basiert auf einer über 4.000 Individuen großen, urbanen Teilgruppe des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP) und Daten zur Landnutzung aus dem Urban Atlas (UA) der Europäischen Umweltagentur (EUA). Die Resultate zeigen einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen Lebenszufriedenheit und urbanen Grünflächen und einen negativen Einfluß von ungenutzten Flächen auf ebenjene.
Im dritten Kapitel wird der potentielle Zugang zu medizinischer Grundversorgung (Hausärzte) in Berlin und Brandenburg mittels eines Gravitätsmodells geschätzt. Die Ergebnisse belegen einen signifikant schlechteren Zugang zu ärztlicher Grundversorgung im ländlichen Raum. Desweiteren lässt sich festellen, dass die Alterstruktur wesentlichen Einfluss auf die Zugänglichkeit hat. So haben Einwohner von Gemeinden in Brandenburg mit einem höheren Anteil von über 65 jährigen einen signifikant schlechteren Versorgungsgrad
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Regression Discontinuity Designs Based on Population Thresholds : Pitfalls and Solutions
Full text linkIn many countries, important features of municipal government (such as the electoral system, mayors' salaries, and the number of councillors) depend on whether the municipality is above or below arbitrary population thresholds. Several papers have used a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to measure the effects of these threshold-based policies on political and economic outcomes. Using evidence from France, Germany, and Italy, we highlight two common pitfalls that arise in exploiting population-based policies (compound treatment and sorting), and we provide guidance for detecting and addressing these pitfalls. Even when these problems are present, population-threshold RDD may be the best available research design for studying the effects of certain policies and political institutions
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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