We use unique rich data for German manufacturing enterprises to investigate the product diversification – firm performance relationship.We find that an increase in the degree of product diversification has a negative impact on profitability when observed and unobserved firm characteristics are...

I exploit exogenous variation in the likelihood to obtain any sort of educational qualification between January- and February-born individuals for 13 academic cohorts in England. For these cohorts compulsory schooling laws interacted with the timing of the CSE and O-level exams to change the...

In this study, we use a unique rich newly built data set for German manufacturing enterprises to investigate the relationship between product diversification and the stability of sales and employment. We find that contrary to portfolio theoretic considerations, more diversified firms exhibit a...

This paper examines whether the attacks on theWorld Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001 have influenced the job prospects of persons from predominantly Muslim countries in the German labor market. The paper uses a large, representative database of the German working population...

This paper investigates whether high regional crime levels lead to a compensating wage differential paid by firms in the respective region. Using data from German social-security records, official police statistics and official statistics for 2003-2006, I consider both violent and non-violent...

This paper investigates the gender wage gap among skilled German workers after the end of vocational training using data from social security records. Using information on worker and plant characteristics for the training plant, results from standard decomposition techniques show that up to 92%...

This paper considers two questions on the labour market discrimination against Arab or Muslim men after the recent terrorist attacks. First, I consider for the first time the impact of the September 11 attacks on the wages and working hours of Arabs in Europe. Second, I test whether the fact...