This study was prepared by Nina Czernich while she was working with the Ifo Institute for Economic Research.It was completed in December 2010 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. The study addresses the question whether the emergence of...

Im Oktober 1998 veranstaltete die Abteilung Mikrodaten von ZUMA die Konferenz ""Forschung mit dem Mikrozensus: Analysen zur Sozialstruktur und zum Arbeitsmarkt"", an der vorwiegend Nutzer des Mikrozensus teilahmen. Hauptziel dieser ersten Nutzerkonferenz war es, ein Forum für den...

The 'big trade-off', described by Arthur Okun some thirty years ago, is back again. Equality or efficiency, or to put it differently again: modern highly developed economies and societies have to choose between the Scylla of income inequality or the Charybdis of unemployment. Furthermore, it...

Recent studies on fertility in Europe indicate the changing cross-country correlation between fertility and key fertility-related indicators. Fertility now tends to be lowest in countries that are traditional, catholic and family oriented, while fertility is highest in countries with high...

This paper considers the potential impact of welfare benefits on the partnership status of women in the UK. Using recent policy reforms to identify the response rate I find that a £100/week welfare benefit "partnership penalty" reduces the probability of a woman having a partner by seven...

Despite the importance attributed to the effects of diversity on the stability and prosperity of nations, the origins of the uneven distribution of ethnic and cultural fragmentation across countries have been underexplored. Building on the role of deeply-rooted biogeographical forces in...