This paper addresses the relationship between the utilization of temporary agency workers by firms and their competitiveness measured by unit labor costs, using a rich, newly built, data set of German manufacturing enterprises. The analysis is conducted by applying different panel data models...

We use data from the West German 1970 census to explore the link between being born during or shortly after World War II and educational and labor market outcomes 25 years later. We document, for the first time, that men and women born in the relatively short period between November 1945 and May...

In this study we empirically investigate the contribution of personality traits to the gender gap in entrepreneurship. Our empirical analyses, which are based on data obtained from a large scale survey of individuals in 36 countries, suggest that a group of personality traits which we call...

This paper analyzes how policy changes affect shareholder wealth in the context of environmental regulation. We exploit the unique and unexpected German reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which involved the immediate shutdown of almost half of Germany’s nuclear reactors while...

While empirical studies that use event-study methodology find on average that the gains from mergers and acquisitions are positive, those focusing on accounting figures tend to find a significant drop in performance. We argue that each of the four possible combinations between positive or...

This paper adds to the literature on extracurricular early childhood education and child development by exploiting unique data on an educational project in Germany, the Junior University (JU). Utilizing a quasi-experimental study design, we estimate the causal short-term effect of JU enrollment...

This paper investigates whether the ‘big tradeoff’ between efficiency and inequality exists, and analyzes empirically the relationship between inequality, redistribution, and employment/unemployment. The analysis is based on a cross-country longitudinal data set (panel data) of 21 OECD...

This paper provides new empirical evidence on gender differences in competitive preferences using a representative data set of more than 25000 individuals from 36 countries. The empirical results show that the gender differences in competitive preferences are statistically significant in almost...

The compliance costs of private taxpayers are not only affected by the tax law itself but also by its implementation through the tax authorities. In this paper we analyze the effect of the tax authorities on the burden of complying with tax regulations. Using survey data of Belgian businesses...

In Deutschland ist soziale Ungleichheit in Gesundheit kaum in der öentlichen Diskussion, obwohl auch hier besser gebildete, reichere, und in der beruflichen Hierarchie höher stehende Menschen zeitlebens gesünder sind und länger leben als andere. Soziale Ungleichheit wird dadurch entlang...