This paper investigates the gender wage gap among skilled German workers after the end of vocational training using data from social security record. Using information on worker and plant characteristics for both the training plant and the current employer, results from standard decomposition...

This paper investigates whether high regional crime levels lead to a compensating wage differential paid by firms in the respective region. Using data from German social security records and official police statistics for 2003 to 2006, we consider both violent and non-violent crimes and use...

This paper considers the impact of tobacco consumption on wages in the UK using data from fifteen waves of the British Household Panel Survey. Considering both overall smoker status as well as the number of cigarettes consumed, we provide estimates for the smoking wage penalty using standard...

This paper shows that differences in various non-cognitive traits, specifically the big five", positive and negative reciprocity, locus of control and risk aversion, contribute to gender inequalities in wages and employment. Using the 2004 and 2005 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel,...

We consider the impact of the 2004 EU-enlargement on enterprise performance and the exporting behavior of German service enterprises in Germany's eastern border region. Our results from regression adjusted difference-in-differences-estimators combined with matching and panel data from official...

This paper provides first evidence on the anatomy of human capital externalities arising from both firm-level and regional human capital. Using panel data from German social security records, both at an individual and aggregated at the plant and regional level, I estimate earnings functions...

This paper considers the impact of adverse health shocks that hit an individual's partner on subjective well-being. Using data on couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984 to 2006, I compare the losses in well-being caused by own and spousal disability using...

This paper considers the (short run) employment and wage effects of the 2004 EUenlargement on firms located close to Germany's Eastern border. We use a 50% sample of Germans plants and apply difference-in-differences-estimators combined with a matching approach. We evaluate changes in total...

This paper provides first evidence on the social returns to education from both firm-level and regional human capital. Using panel data from German social security, both at an individual and aggregated at the plant and regional level, I estimate earnings functions incorporating measures of...

In this paper, I contrast the effects of individual and spousal disability on subjective wellbeing and labor supply using data on couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984 to 2006. I find that both men and women reduce their propensity to work when they or their partner...