The economic and psychological literatures have demonstrated that early investments (private and public) in children can significantly increase cognitive outcomes in the short and long term and contribute to success later in life. One of the most important of these inputs is maternal time....

Female labor market participation rates have increased substantially in many countries over the last decades, especially those of mothers with young children. This trend has triggered an intense debate about its implications for children's well-being and long-term educational outcomes. The...

This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representative German dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restricted maximum likelihood model...

Unemployment swings have distributional consequences if some groups are hit harder than others. We examine if the sensitivity to local unemployment rates varies by characteristics such as health, cognitive ability and non-cognitive ability. Data on these variables come from registers covering...

Diese Dissertation besteht aus fünf Aufsätzen aus den Bereichen Arbeitsmarkt- und Bildungsökonomie. Das Ziel der Dissertation ist es, ein Verständnis für die Faktoren zu entwickeln, die individuelle Bildungsziele und individuelles Arbeitsangebot determinieren. Die Hauptmotivation dieser...