While the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assesses the average ability of German primary school students as being higher than average, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies (OECD, 2000, 2003, 2006) ranks German secondary school students...

This article contributes to the literature on unemployment and well-being by investigating the linkage between personal life satisfaction and a macroeconomic indicator of the duration of unemployment. Using data for more than 50 000 individuals in 10 European countries, 1992-2002, we find that...

Since the early 1970s, it was argued that shifts from relatively smaller to larger youth cohorts in the labor force raise the unemploy- ment rate. In contrast, Shimer (2001) comes to a contrary conclusion using US state level data. I provide a theoretical framework for local labor markets that...

In this study, we examine how economic performance during the child-specific primary school phase, during which teachers make recommendations regarding secondary school level, affects the educational level achieved ultimately by these children. Using data for Germany, we find that an economic...