This study was prepared by Martin Schlotter while he was working with the Ifo Institute for Economic Research. It was completed in June 2011 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Econcomics at the University of Munich in November 2011. It addresses the effects of different early...

How do institutional factors and their interaction with individual resources influence the length of mothers’ interruption durations after childbirth and return-to-work behaviour? This thesis answers this question from a family sociology and labour market perspective, and concentrates on how...

This dissertation consists of six self-contained chapters that are related to the behavior of firms and politicians in a broader sense. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the dissertation elaborates on how institutional and political framework conditions influence the behavior...