We use a life cycle model of consumption and portfolio choice to study the effects of social security on the investment decisions of households for the European case. Our model is mainly based on the one developed by Cocco, Gomes, and Maenhout (2005). We extend it by unemployment risk using...

Most microenterprises barely grow beyond subsistence level, as profitable investments are not realized due to barriers like credit, savings, and managerial constraints. Using panel data, this study identifies subgroups that would benefit by an intervention aiming to alleviate constraints. Two...

After the collapse in early transition years, saving rates in Eastern European EU-accession countries have recovered strongly. Is private saving in these countries now driven by the same forces as in the EU? A GMM estimator is applied to analyze the determinants of private saving in both country...

Die EU-Kommission will bis zum Jahr 2012 den Kohlendioxid-Ausstoß der in der EU verkauften Neuwagen im Mittel auf 130 Gramm CO2 pro Kilometer beschränken. Die Vorschläge gehen nach Ansicht von Renate Künast und Winfried Hermann, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, nicht weit genug. Es sei zwar klar,...

The ongoing financial crisis so far cost the German financial sector 38 billion Euros due to losses on its mortgage-related subprime bank exposures. This paper looks for the impact of these losses on the real sector of the economy. First, the financial sector is looked at as part of the overall...

This paper shows that the measurement of hand grip strength provides a non-invasive and reliable objective health indicator for social science research and is easy to collect in general population surveys. Grip strength is not only a useful complement of self-reported indicators of health, but...

Using micro panel data, labor market transitions are analyzed for the EU-member states by cumulative year-by-year transition probabilities. As female (non-)employment patterns changed more dramatically than male employment in past decades, the analyses mainly refer to female labor supply. In...