The paper investigates maternity leave behavior in West Germany for females being employed between 1995 and 2006 using data from the German Socio Economic Panel. The observational study focuses on the investigation of individual and family-related covariate effects on the duration of maternity...

The paper investigates maternity leave behavior in West Germany for females being employed between 1995 and 2006 using data from the German Socio Economic Panel. The observational study focuses on the investigation of individual and family-related covariate effects on the duration of maternity...

This paper shows that there are severe measurement errors regarding the occupational affiliations in the German Socio-Economic Panel. These errors are traced back to the survey structure: in years where occupational information is gathered from the entire employed population instead of only from...

This paper shows that there are severe measurement errors regarding the occupational affiliations in the German Socio-Economic Panel. These errors are traced back to the survey structure: in years where occupational information is gathered from the entire employed population instead of only from...

In this paper, we study semiparametric estimation for a single-index panel data model where the nonlinear link function varies among the individuals. We propose using the refined minimum average variance estimation method to estimate the parameter in the single-index. As the cross-section...

In this paper, we consider semiparametric estimation in a partially linear single-index panel data model with fixed effects. Without taking the difference explicitly, we propose using a semiparametric minimum average variance estimation (SMAVE) based on a dummy-variable method to remove the...

A semiparametric fixed effects model is introduced to describe the nonlinear trending phenomenon in panel data analysis and it allows for the cross-sectional dependence in both the regressors and the residuals. A pooled semiparametric profile likelihood dummy variable approach based on the...

After a summary of the main achievements in microfinance, the thesis provides an overview of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries between 2000 and 2009. A thorough study of microfinance in sub-Saharan Africa is also proposed. It serves as a prelude to the econometric analysis...