In this paper, we provide first empirical evidence on the effect of outsourcing on union wages using linked employer-employee data for Germany. We find that low skilled workers experience a decline in the union wage premium when working in industries with high outsourcing intensities. The...

The interaction between trade liberalisation, product and process innovation, and relative skill demand is analysed in a model of international oligopoly. Lower trading barriers increase the degree of foreign competition. The competing enterprises respond by investing more aggressively in...

We test the often-cited hypothesis that high levels of child labour attract foreigninvestors. Using panel data we show the overall effect, which child labour has on foreign direct investment (FDI), to be a (small) negative one. We find strong evidence for the theoretical prediction that child...

We investigate the matching algorithm used by the German central clearinghouse foruniversity admissions (ZVS) in medicine and related subjects. This mechanism consists ofthree procedures based on final grades from school ("Abiturbestenverfahren","Auswahlverfahren der Hochschulen") and on waiting...

This paper studies how national sentiment in the form of either a perception or a loyaltybias of bettors may affect pricing patterns on national wagering markets for international sportevents. We show theoretically that both biases can be profitably exploited by bookmakers byway of price...

It is widely believed that civic associations are capable to produce social capital, here understood as an individual asset resulting from relations of mutual support and assistance. Although hardly anybody denies that socializing is widespread in many civic associations, it still remains to be...

This paper studies how dierent unionisation structures aect rm productivity, rmperformance, and consumer welfare in a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneousrms and free entry. While centralised bargaining induces tougher selection among hetero-geneous producers and thus increases...

Woman surage led to the greatest enfranchisement in the history of the United States.Before World War I, however, surage states remained almost exclusively conned to theAmerican West. The reasons for this pioneering role of the West are still unclear. Studyingthe timing of woman surage adoption...

National labour market institutions interact across national boundaries when product markets are global. Labour market policies can thus entail spill-overs, which suggest that there are benefits from international policy coordination. This paper studies the effects of wage subsidies in an...

Quotas for special groups of students often apply in school or university admission procedures. This paper studies the performance of two mechanisms to implement such quotas in a lab experiment. The fi rst mechanism is a simplifi ed version of the mechanism currently employed by the German...