This paper contributes to the debate about the optimal design of tax-transfer systems. Basedon the theory of optimal taxation, combined with microsimulation and microeconometrictechniques we derive the welfare function which makes the current German tax and transfersystem for single women optimal...

The UK´s Equal Opportunities Commission has recently drawn attention to the hidden braindrain when women working part-time are employed in occupations below those for whichthey are qualified. These inferences were based on self-reporting...

Two particular features of the position of women in the British labour market are theextensive role of part-time work and the large part-time pay penalty. Part-time work featuresmost prominently when women are in their 30s, the peak childcare years and, particularly formore educated women, a...

In this paper we develop a model to consistently estimate the intertemporal labor supplybehavior on the extensive margin (participation decision) and the intensive margin (workinghours decision). In this framework we distinguish between voluntary non-participation andinvoluntary unemployment...

This paper provides unheard direct evidence that comparisons exert a significant effect onsubjective well-being. It also evaluates the relative importance of different types ofbenchmarks...

This paper uses matched employer-employee panel data to show that individual jobsatisfaction is higher when other workers in the same establishment are better-paid. Thisruns contrary to a large literature which has found evidence of income comparisons insubjective well-being...

We study the role of ethnic networks in migrants` job search and the quality of jobs they find in the first years of settlement. We find that there are initial downward movements along the occupational ladder, followed by improvements...

Utilizing data from the June Current Population Survey (CPS) Fertility Supplement mergedwith data from other months of the CPS, we describe trends in parents´ employment andleave-taking after birth of a newborn and analyze the extent to which these behaviors areassociated with parental leave...

Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers, amounting to 6.4 percent of GDP and 31.5 percent of total exports of goods and services in 2005. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital...

The principal means by which individuals and families achieve economic self-sufficiency is through labor market earnings. As a consequence, it is natural for policy makers to look to interventions that increase the ability of individuals and families to achieve an adequate standard of living...