"This paper investigates the causal effect of regional variation in active labor market policy utilizing data for 176 German employment offices and a period covering 2000-2004. In this endeavor, we also analyze the impact of the recent labor market reforms ('Hartz reforms'). We use flow measures...

Determining the optimal age at which a child should enter school is a controversial topic in education policy. In particular, German policy makers, pedagogues, parents, and teachers have since long discussed whether the traditional, established age of school entry at 6 years remains appropriate....

Over the last year the German government has introduced a comprehensive set of labor market policy reforms, the so-called Hartz reforms, which aim at a significant reduction of unemployment. To this end, (a) many of the existing instruments of active labor market policy are modified...

This paper investigates alternative types of employment introduced or changed by the latest labor market reforms in Germany ("Hartz-reforms"). Specifically, we investigate whether and to which extent the reform of temporary work and the reduction of social security contributions for socalled...

The recent reform of jobs with reduced social security contributions (the so-called Minijobs) was associated with the expectation that such jobs could serve as a bridge into regular employment for unemployed workers. However, recent experiences with the reform cast substantial doubts on the...

Mit der zum 1. April 2003 in Kraft getretenen Reform geringfügiger Beschäftigungsverhältnisse - sog. Minijobs - im Rahmen der Hartz-Gesetze sind vielfältige arbeitsmarktpolitische Ziele verbunden. Die erste empirische Evidenz zur Wirksamkeit der Minijob-Reform nach einem Jahr zeigt, dass,...

Over the last year the German government has introduced a comprehensive set of labor market policy reforms, the so-called Hartz reforms, which aim at a significant reduction of unemployment. To this end, (a) many of the existing instruments of active labor market policy are modified...

Determining the optimal age at which a child should enter school is a controversial topic in education policy. In particular, German policy makers, pedagogues, parents, and teachers have since long discussed whether the traditional, established age of school entry at 6 years remains appropriate....

Rural electrification is believed to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we investigate electrification impacts on different indicators. We use household data that we collected in Rwanda in villages with and without electricity access. We account for...

While high rates of youth unemployment are a severe problem in most European countries, the program evaluation literature shows that disadvantaged youths constitute a group that is particularly difficult to assist effectively. As innovative measures are thus needed, we evaluate a German pilot...