Unter dem Stichwort "Patchwork-Biografien" wird die Tatsache, dass ein großer Teil der abhängig Beschäftigten ihren erlernten Beruf nicht mehr ausüben, in jüngster Zeit viel diskutiert. Diese Studie liefert einen empirischen Beitrag zur Anatomie der Berufswechsel für westdeutsche Männer...

In this paper we analyze the impact of information technology and organizational changes on wages using individual level data for 1998/1999. The average impact of IT use on wages turns out to be five to six percent, however, the effects differ across different IT components. Unless employees use...

The present analysis investigates skill requirements in the workplace, measured directly by the task-composition of occupations. It shows that the task composition of occupations has shifted toward analytical and interactive activities and away from manual and cognitive routine activities in...

In this study, I analyze the relationship between IT use and wages in West Germany in 1998/99. I use two estimation approaches: regression based matching and matching on the propensity score. The richness of the data set favors the use of these approaches. The variable of main interest is the...

Previous empirical studies of job creation schemes in Germany have shown that the average effects for the participating individuals are negative. However, we find that this is not true for all strata of the population. Identifying individual characteristics that are responsible for the effect...

Two main hypotheses can be found in literature on why elderly workers have a lower probability of using information technology than their younger peers: lower learning capabilities and reduced incentives to invest in human capital. I use law changes in the unemployment compensation system...

This paper aims at providing business survey analysts with simple econometric tools to quantify qualitative survey data. We extend the traditional and commonly applied method proposed by Carlson and Parkin (1975) to capture observable survey respondent heterogeneity. We also discuss...

We analyze the relationship between managerial ownership and company performance, testing the incentive and entrenchment hypothesis. Differently from previous literature, we focus on small and medium-sized private enterprises which constitute an important part of the German economy. We use a...

Based on a large data set containing information on occupations between 1979 and 1999, this study explores the ?black box? surrounding the skill?biased technological change hypothesis by analyzing the mechanisms that induce information technologies to be complementary to employees with higher...