Announcement effects of health policy reforms : evidence from the abolition of Austria’s baby bonus

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch)We analyze the short-run fertility and health effects resulting from the early announcement of the abolition of the Austrian baby bonus in January 1997. The abolition of the benefit was publicly announced about 10 months in advance, creating the opportunity for prospective parents to (re-)schedule conceptions accordingly. We find robust evidence that, within the month before the abolition, about 8 % more children were born as a result of (re-)scheduling conceptions. At the same time, there is no evidence that mothers deliberately manipulated the date of birth through medical intervention. We also find a substantial and significant increase in the fraction of birth complications, but no evidence for any resulting adverse effects on newborns' health

Branes at Orbifolds versus Hanany Witten in Six Dimensions

We reconstruct non-trivial 6d theories obtained by Blum and Intriligator by considering IIB or SO(32) 5 branes at ALE spaces in the language of Hanany Witten setups. Using ST duality we make the equivalence of the two approaches manifest, thereby uncovering several new T-duality relations between the group theoretic data describing the embedding of the instantonic 5 brane in the ALE and brane positions in the Hanany Witten language. We construct several new 6d theories, which can be understood as arising on 5 branes in IIB orientifolds with oppositely charged orientifold planes recently introduced by Witten.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX2e, 11 figures, using utarticle.cls (included). Typos corrected, Acknowledgements adde

Matrix Description of M-theory on T6T^6

We give some evidence that the worldvolume theory of the M-theory KK 6-brane is governed by a non-critical membrane theory. We use this theory to give a matrix description of M-theory on $T^6$.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e, using utarticle.cls (included

To Shape the Future: How Labor Market Entry Conditions Affect Individuals' Long-Run Wage Profiles

We study the long-run effects of initial labor market conditions on wages for a large sample of male individuals entering the Austrian labor market between 1978 and 2000. We find a robust negative effect of unfavorable entry conditions on starting wages. This initial effect turns out to be quite persistent and even though wages do catch up later on, large effects on lifetime earnings result. We also show that initial labor market conditions have smaller and less persistent effects for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers. We further show that some of the long-run adjustment takes place through changes in job-mobility and employment patterns as well as in job tenure. Finally, we find that adjustments at the aggregate level are key to explain wages' adjustment process in the longer run.labor market cohorts, initial labor market conditions, long-run wage profiles, persistence of labor market shocks, unemployment, business cycle

Financial Incentives, the Timing of Births, Birth Complications, and Newborns' Health: Evidence from the Abolition of Austria's Baby Bonus

We analyze the fertility and health effects resulting from the abolition of the Austrian baby bonus in January 1997. The abolition of the benefit was publicly announced about ten months in advance, creating the opportunity for prospective parents to (re-)schedule conceptions accordingly. We find robust evidence that, within the month before the abolition, about 8% more children were born as a result of (re-)scheduling conceptions. At the same time, there is no evidence that mothers deliberately manipulated the date of birth through medical intervention. We also find a substantial and significant increase in the fraction of birth complications, but no evidence for any resulting adverse effects on newborns' health.baby bonus, scheduling of conceptions, timing of births, policy announcement, abolition effect, birth complications, medical intervention

The Impact of Labor Market Entry Conditions on Initial Job Assignment, Human Capital Accumulation, and Wages

We estimate the effects of labor market entry conditions on wages for male individuals first entering the Austrian labor market between 1978 and 2000. We find a large negative effect of unfavorable entry conditions on starting wages as well as a sizeable negative long-run effect. Specifically, we estimate that a one percentage point increase in the initial local unemployment rate is associated with an approximate shortfall in lifetime earnings of 6.5%. We also show that bad entry conditions are associated with lower quality of a worker's first job and that initial wage shortfalls associated with bad entry conditions only partially evaporate upon involuntary job change. These and additional findings support the view that initial job assignment, in combination with accumulation of occupation or industry-specific human capital while on this first job, plays a key role in generating the observed wage persistencies.initial labor market conditions, endogenous labor market entry, initial job assignment, specific human capital

To Shape the Future: How Labor Market Entry Conditions Affect Individuals’s Long-Run Wage Profiles

We study the long-run effects of initial labor market conditions on wages for a large sample of male individuals entering the Austrian labor market between 1978 and 2000. We find a robust negative effect of unfavorable entry conditions on starting wages. This initial effect turns out to be quite persistent and even though wages do catch up later on, large effects on lifetime earnings result. We also show that initial labor market conditions have smaller and less persistent effects for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers. We further show that some of the long-run adjustment takes place through changes in job-mobility and employment patterns as well as in job tenure. Finally, we find that adjustments at the aggregate level are key to explain wages' adjustment process in the longer run.labor market cohorts, initial labor market conditions, long-run wage profiles, persistence of labor market shocks, unemployment, business cycle

Financial Incentives, the Timing of Births, Birth Complications, and Newborns’ Health: Evidence from the Abolition of Austria’s Baby Bonus

We analyze the fertility and health effects resulting from the abolition of the Austrian baby bonus in January 1997. The abolition of the benefit was publicly announced about ten months in advance, creating the opportunity for prospective parents to (re-)schedule conceptions accordingly. We find robust evidence that, within the month before the abolition, about 8% more children were born as a result of (re-)scheduling conceptions. At the same time, there is no evidence that mothers deliberately manipulated the date of birth through medical intervention. We also find a substantial and significant increase in the fraction of birth complications, but no evidence for any resulting adverse effects on newborns’ health.baby bonus; scheduling of conceptions; timing of births; policy announcement; abolition effect; birth complications; medical intervention