Using a unique German firm-level data set, we provide empirical evidence for a productivity sorting along two dimensions: international activity and technology choice. We consider domestic and exporting firms and measure technology choice by firms' actual use of advanced information technology...

In this paper, I analyse the relationship between offshoring and ICT at the firm level differentiating between manufacturing and services. Using firm-level data from the manufacturing and service sector in Germany and a broad range of ICT measures, overall, the results reveal a positive...

In dieser Analyse wird auf Basis der Mikrozensen aus den Jahren 1991, 1993 und 1995 die zunehmende Verbreitung der Arbeitszeitflexibilisierung in der Bundesrepublik nachgezeichnet. Anschließend wird untersucht, inwieweit diese auf die Veränderung der Wirtschaftsstruktur zurückzuführen ist....

The paper analyses the applicability of vocational training and the earnings of apprentices using survey data from West Germany in 1979, 1985/86 and 1991/92. The applicability has decreased remarkably between 1979 and 1991/92. The objective of the analysis is a survey-data-based assessment of...

The paper examines the evolution of returns to education in the West German labour market over the last two decades. During this period, graduates from the period of educational expansion in the sixties and seventies entered the labour market and an upgrading of the skill structure took place....

Using German firm-level data, an endogenous switching regression model within a production function framework is estimated in order to explore differences in labor productivity between IT outsourcing and non-IT outsourcing firms. This approach takes possible complementarities between IT...

Die Bildungsreformen der sechziger Jahre sollten das Bildungsniveau der Westdeutschen anheben. Die Analyse der Daten des Mikrozensus weist darauf hin, dass die durch die Bildungsreformen intendierte Bildungsexpansion schon vor 1960 begonnen hat. Mit dem Conditional Mean Independence Ansatz...

This paper investigates the evolution of wages and the recent tendency to rising wage inequality in Germany, based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for 1984 to 2004. Between 1984 and 1994 the wage distribution was fairly stable. Wage inequality started to increase around 1994 in...

In this study, we try to connect the economic literature on human capital formation with findings from neurobiology and psychology on early childhood development and self-regulation. Our basic framework for assessing the distribution of agespecific returns to investment in skills is an...

This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between firm-provided IT training and the firm?s proportion of older workers. Using data from the ZEW ICT survey of the years 2004 and 2007, the results show that a firm?s IT intensity plays a crucial role: firms intensively using information...