Over the last decades the German education system underwent numerous reforms in order to improve "equality of opportunity", i.e. to guarantee all pupils equal access to higher education. At the same time internationally comparative evidence yields that Germany features particularly low...

This paper explores determinants of church attendance and the formation of 'religious human capital' in Germany within a Becker-style allocation-of-time framework. The analysis is based on data derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Taking advantage of the longitudinal structure...

Data from the Austrian Family and Fertility Survey are used to examine for the first time the contemporary relationship between religion and fertility in first unions in Austria. Although Austria is a Catholic country, results from a Poisson hurdle model show that both women s denominational...

Religion as a determinant of individuals’ behavior has only recently found its way in the economic literature. In this analysis, four waves of ISSP-data covering the time between 1991 and 2002 are used to examine the relationship between religion and attitudes towards working mothers across...

"With the longitudinal data from the SOEP this paper examines how 'marginal' part-time workers have responded to the liability to social security payments for such employment relationships, which was introduced in April 1999. As solely 'marginal' part-time workers and those with 'marginal'...

  This paper analyses whether taller workers earn more than their shorter counterparts. Using GSOEP data from 1991 to 2002, earnings functions are estimated for male and female workers for both West and East Germany. The Hausman-Taylor IV estimator is applied to account for unobservable...

"With the longitudinal data from the SOEP this paper examines how 'marginal' part-time workers have responded to the liability to social security payments for such employment relationships, which was introduced in April 1999. As solely 'marginal' part-time workers and those with 'marginal'...

"Is there a reward for basic skills in the German labor market? To answer this question, we examine the relationship between literacy, numeracy and monthly gross earnings of full-time employed workers. We use data from the ALWA survey, augmented by test scores on basic cognitive skills as well...

"It is well known that individuals' risk attitudes are related to behavioral outcomes such as smoking, portfolio decisions, and also educational attainment, but there is barely any evidence on whether parental attitudes affect the educational attainment of dependent children. We add to this...

Working time arrangements determine, to a large extent, the successful balancing of work and family life. This study investigates the role of working time preferences and hours mismatch for well-being among couples. The empirical evidence indicates that well-being is generally lower among those...