People’s expectations after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and of reunification in 1990 were huge. The government promised to create “flourishing landscapes” within a few years. The euphoria of reunification came not only through the desire to finally become one country and one...

Die Erwartungen der Menschen nach dem Mauerfall vor 25 Jahren und der Wiedervereinigung 1990 waren enorm. Die Regierung versprach, innerhalb weniger Jahre „blühende Landschaften“ zu schaffen. Die Euphorie der Wiedervereinigung kam nicht nur durch den Wunsch zustande, endlich wieder ein Land...

In East Germany, prior to reunification, daycare provision was widely available to encourage mothers to return to work soon after giving birth. Conversely, in West Germany, childcare facilities for under-threes were few and far between and, at the end of the ’80s/ beginning of the ’90s, the...

In East Germany, prior to reunification, day care provision was widely available to encourage mothers to return to work soon after giving birth. Conversely, in West Germany, child care facilities for the under-threes were few and far between and, at the end of the '80s/beginning of the '90s, the...

By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extended the literature which has mostly focused on the importance of day-care availability or costs. We provided differentiated analyses by the youngest child’s...

In recent years, almost all children below school age in Western industrialized countries have some experience of attending day care institutions. However, the age at which children enter day care and therefore the overall time spent in day carevaries substantially. We investigate the potential...

When mothers with young children contemplate employment, a decisive factor is whether day care is available. Extensive research has been carried out on the subject. However, to date, it has failed to address the extent to which the quality of day care affects maternal employment decisions. We...

Both children and their parents can benefit from early education and child care. We investigate whether the various provisions are utilized by all families and what differences there are in terms of the socio-economic resources available to them. On the basis of the German Socio-Economic Panel...

How to best provide incentives for a more gender-equal division of domestic work has entered policy debates in many Western countries. Growing evidence suggests that a gender-traditional division of household labor may result in lower fertility rates and greater risk of relationship breakdown...

This research explores how different parental leave reforms in West Germany impacted on the time mothers and fathers in couples spent on child care. I investigate indirect effects through mothers' labor market return decisions more in detail than previous studies and also examine potential...