This article analyzes the efficiency in the provision of child care services at the municipal level and identifies the main determinants of inefficiency. We use a unique data set on the local child care expenditures in the eastern German State of Saxony. The analysis is performed in two stages....

In this paper, we describe the results for the section “Stress Testing Methodology forKazakh Banking System” which is part of the “Development of an Early Warning Systemfor Kazakhstan” project. The participating Kazakh institutions are the National Bank ofKazakhstan (NBRK), the Financial...

In Germany, immigrant unemployment is not only higher than native unemployment; italso reacts more to changes in the situation on the labor market. Decomposing the gapbetween native and immigrant unemployment into a baseline and a labor-marketsituation component, I find that the unemployment...

This paper deals with the effects to labour market institutions on labour market performance. We analyse the employment threshold (the minimum growth rate necessaryto keep employment constant) which is an indicator for the labour intensity of production. We show for 17 OECD countries for the...

We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibriumshare of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasinaturalexperiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution ofbaroque opera houses built as a part...

Investment in equipment and machinery is a very important component of GDP. In this paper we examine whether data from business tendency surveys are useful for a timely assessment of current investment behavior. In addition we investigate whether the survey results are helpful for...

Over the last two decades EU countries experienced diverging productivity growthdevelopments. By examining the sources of EU countries growth drivers on the sectorallevel, the paper takes a new look on the influence of innovations. While standard neoclassicalNon-ICT capital deepening turns out...

Many countries pursue an immigration policy that is targeted at attracting high skilled workers. Borjas (1995) has shown that assuming perfect labor markets immigration leads to a welfare gain for the native population, the so-called immigration surplus. Thus, as the labor market for high...

Since its inception, the traditional form of providing survivor benefits through public pension schemes has lost much of its legitimacy. As a result of fundamental changes in marriage behaviour and the typical division of labour between married spouses, offering non-contributory benefits of this...

US labor productivity in ICT-skill intensive industries experienced tremendousincreases in post–1995 trend growth compared to Germany, while other (non-ICT-skillintensive) industries showed similar growth trends in both countries. Examining thesource of industry productivity growth in German...