Institutional Childcare: An Overview on the German Market

Institutional early childhood education and care can be funded and delivered in various ways relying on both the public and the private sector. The provision of childcare ranges from public operation to mixed markets with public and private providers to considerably marketised systems with predominantly private providers. One of the countries with a mixed childcare system is Germany where most of the childcare centres are operated by local authorities and non-profit organisations. Using newly available statistical data this paper provides a descriptive overview on the market for childcare in Germany from a providers' perspective. It answers the question if providers differ systematically with regard to centre characteristics, staff employed or the children taken care of. As the results show, the differences in operation affect many dimensions, nevertheless non-religious and for-profit centres on the one hand as well as public and religious centres on the other hand tend show similar characteristics. --institutional childcare,provision,public and private sector

School entrance recommendation: A question of age or development?

According to school entry regulations in most countries, the composition of school entrance cohorts is determined by a fixed cutoff date. This procedure creates inter-cohort differences in age and development which can severely influence educational trajectories. Developmental examinations at school entry might be an instrument to mitigate these differences by delaying school entry for children with developmental impairments. Using data on the compulsory school entrance screening in the German federal state of Brandenburg, this paper shows that age and developmental status are the major influencing factors for a child's probability to receive a school recommendation. Younger children and children with impairments in cognitive, socio-emotional and motor development as well as health are less likely to be recommended. Delaying school entry allows them to improve, although their developmental status remains below average. School entrance examinations thus allow for some harmonization of school cohorts with respect to age and developmental differences. --child development,school entrance,school recommendation,relative age

Dips and floors in workplace training: Using personnel records to estimate gender differences

Using personnel records from a single large German firm in the financial industry, this paper provides detailed evidence on the effect of age and the supervisor's gender on gender differences in workplace training, holding constant various workplace characteristics. We implement an age-specific decomposition of the incidence and the duration of training into three terms: an age-specific coefficients effect, an age-specific characteristics effect, and an age composition effect. Our results show that the gender training gap changes with age. Females obtain less training during the early career, and their training occurs at higher age. The timing of the gender training gap seems to be driven by diverging career paths associated with employment interruptions. However, we find no evidence for catching-up effects after parental leave. A decomposition of the training gap including supervisor fixed effects reveals that supervisors do not treat male and female employees differently. Supervisors assign more training to all employees if they themselves participate more in training. --training participation,age,gender,company data

Determinants of Child Care Participation

When estimating the determinants of child care participation, the simultaneity in mothers' decision to work and in the decision to use child care is a major challenge. In this study, we provide evidence on the determinants of institutional child care use accounting for the endogeneity of mothers' labor supply by applying an instrumental variables approach. This endogeneity has been neglected in studies on this issue so far, even though the decision to use child care outside the home is strongly connected to mothers' decision to work after childbirth and vice versa. Based on the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) from 1989{2006 we show that children living in Western Germany have a higher probability to attend institutional care if their mothers increase their actual weekly working time. Estimating the determining factors of child care participation without correcting for simultaneity underestimates the influence of maternal working time by more than a half. --child care choice,kindergarten attendance,maternal employment

Determinants of Child Care Participation

When estimating the determinants of child care participation, the simultaneity in mothers' decision to work and in the decision to use child care is a major challenge. In this study, we provide evidence on the determinants of institutional child care use accounting for the endogeneity of mothers' labor supply by applying an instrumental variables approach. This endogeneity has been neglected in studies on this issue so far, even though the decision to use child care outside the home is strongly connected to mothers' decision to work after childbirth and vice versa. Based on the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) from 1989-2006 we show that children living in Western Germany have a higher probability to attend institutional care if their mothers increase their actual weekly working time. Estimating the determining factors of child care participation without correcting for simultaneity underestimates the influence of maternal working time by more than a half.

Leading-order hadronic contributions to the electron and tau anomalous magnetic moments

The leading hadronic contributions to the anomalous magnetic moments of the electron and the $\tau$-lepton are determined by a four-flavour lattice QCD computation with twisted mass fermions. The continuum limit is taken and systematic uncertainties are quantified. Full agreement with results obtained by phenomenological analyses is found.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables; version accepted for publication in EPJ

The Returns to Continuous Training in Germany: New Evidence from Propensity Score Matching Estimators

The present paper examines the wage effects of continuous training programs using individual-level data from the German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP). In order to account for selectivity in training participation we estimate average treatment effects (ATE and ATT) of general and firm-specific continuous training programs using several state-of-the-art propensity score matching (PSM) estimators. Additionally, we also apply a combined matching difference-in-differences (MDiD) estimator to account for unobserved individual characteristics (e.g. motivation, ability). While the estimated ATE and ATT for general training are significant ranging between about 4 and 7.5 %, the corresponding wage effects of firm-specific training are mostly insignificant. Using the more appropriate MDiD estimator, however, we find a more precise and highly significant wage effect of about 5 to 6 %, though only for general training and not for firm-specific training. These results are consistent with standard human capital theory insofar as general training is associated with larger wage increases than firm-specific training. Furthermore, we conclude that firms may intend to use specific training to adjust to new job requirements, while career-relevant changes may be conditioned to general training.Continuous training; wage effect; average treatment effect; selectivity bias; propensity score matching estimators; combined matching difference-in-differences estimator.

The Returns to Continuous Training in Germany: New Evidence from Propensity Score Matching Estimators

The present paper examines the wage effects of continuous training programs using individual-level data from the German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP). In order to account for selectivity in training participation we estimate average treatment effects (ATE and ATT) of general and firm-specific continuous training programs using several state-of-the-art propensity score matching (PSM) estimators. Additionally, we also apply a combined matching difference-indifferences (MDiD) estimator to account for unobserved individual characteristics (e.g. motivation, ability). While the estimated ATE and ATT for general training are significant ranging between about 4 and 7.5 %, the corresponding wage effects of firm-specific training are mostly insignificant. Using the more appropriate MDiD estimator, however, we find a more precise and highly significant wage effect of about 5 to 6 %, though only for general training and not for firm-specific training. These results are consistent with standard human capital theory insofar as general training is associated with larger wage increases than firm-specific training. Furthermore, we conclude that firms may intend to use specific training to adjust to new job requirements, while career-relevant changes may be conditioned to general training. --Continuous training,wage effect,average treatment effect,selectivity bias,propensity score matching estimators

Duration and Intensity of Kindergarten Attendance and Secondary School Track Choice

This paper investigates the relationship between kindergarten attendance and secondary school track choice in West-Germany. Our analysis is based on a panel of 12 to 14-year olds with information from age two on, drawn from the German SocioEconomic Panel (GSOEP) 1984?2005. We estimate binary probit models to assess the impact of the duration (in years) and the intensity (half-day or full-day) of kindergarten attendance. Our results indicate that kindergarten non-attendance is associated with a significantly lower probability to attend the highest secondary school track (?Gymnasium?). Further, full-day attendance is associated with a decreasing probability of attending the highest secondary school track for every duration of preschool child care. Thus, intensity seems to matter more than duration. --kindergarten,preschool education,school placement

Face Cognition: A Set of Distinct Mental Abilities

Perceiving, learning, and recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Though established functional models of face cognition<sup>1,2</sup> suggest the existence of multiple abilities in face cognition, the number of such abilities and the relationships among them and to other cognitive abilities can only be determined by studying individual differences. Here we investigated individual differences in a broad variety of indicators of face cognition and identified for the first time three component abilities: face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition. These component abilities were replicated in an independent study and were found to be robustly separable from established cognitive abilities, specifically immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. The analysis of individual differences goes beyond functional and neurological models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face learning, and by making evident the distinction between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Our indicators also provide a means to develop tests and training programs for face cognition that are broader and more precise than those currently available).<sup>3,4</sup&#x3e