Over the last decades the German education system underwent numerous reforms in order to improve "equality of opportunity", i.e. to guarantee all pupils equal access to higher education. At the same time internationally comparative evidence yields that Germany features particularly low...

In Germany, a large proportion of new retirees—at times, more than half of them—have taken disability retirement. This study investigates the role of expected benefits in determining that choice. The author finds that among German men in 1984–91, age, health, and prior wages...

In Germany, a large proportion of new retirees-at times, more than half of them-have taken disability retirement. This study investigates the role of expected benefits in determining that choice. The author finds that among German men in 1984-91, age, health, and prior wages were much stronger...

The theory of fiscal federalism argues that local governments should only tax mobile tax bases for the purpose of charging user taxes which correct for congestion effects. Empirically, we observe that local governments do levy taxes on mobile bases. In Germany, this is the local business tax...

We study the development of teenage fertility in East and West Germany using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) and from the German Mikrozensus. Following the international literature we derive hypotheses on the patterns of teenage fertility and test whether they are relevant in the...

The authors investigate the effect of managerial performance evaluation styles on employee work effort. Using panel data on 4,080 employees in a Swiss unit of an international company for the period 1999-2002, they test two hypotheses using paid and unpaid overtime work as effort indicators. The...

We study the development of teenage fertility in East and West Germany using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) and from the German Mikrozensus. Following the international literature we derive hypotheses on the patterns of teenage fertility and test whether they are relevant in the...

We study state dependence in the German welfare system and compare transition patterns before and after recent reforms of the welfare system (Hartz Reforms). Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we apply dynamic multinomial logit estimators and find that welfare transitions have...

This study tests to what degree the incidence of payroll taxes in Germany is on employment and whether in consequence payroll taxes, in particular social insurance contributions, are the culprit behind the growing unemployment problem. Using industry level data for 18 years (1977-1994) a system...