Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources

Recent studies about estimating half-lives of purchasing power parity argues that heterogeneity bias resulting from aggregating the real exchange rate across sectors is important and should be taken into account. However, they do not use appropriate techniques to measure persistence. In this paper we use the extended median-unbiased estimation method in panel context for each sector separately and calculate both point estimates and confidence intervals. We conclude that controlling for sectoral heterogeneity bias and small sample bias will not solve the PPP puzzle.PPP persistence, real exchange rate, heterogeneity bias extended median-unbiased estimation, panel data

The development of study-specific self-efficacy during grammar school.(Zur Entwicklung der studienspezifischen Selbstwirksamkeit in der Oberstufe)

Article is in German. Even if more and more German adolescents acquire a university entrance qualification, not all of them finally enrol at a university. In particular, the transition from school to university strongly depends on parent’s education. Even with the same marks in school, adolescents from non-academic households are less likely to enrol in universities than adolescents from academic housholds. One important reason is their lower belief to master a university study. This study analyses a specific intervention in grammar school to improve study-specific self- efficacy, the belief in one’s capabilities to master a university study, using a longitudinal design. We apply a difference-in-difference framework and show that programme participation significantly improves the study-specific self-efficacy for puplis from non- academic families but not for those from academic families. Hence, such a programme could reduce social disparities between both groups

The Credibility of Monetary Policy Announcements – Empirical Evidence for OECD Countries Since the 1960s

Monetary policy rules have been considered as fundamental protection against inflation. However, empirical evidence for a correlation between rules and inflation is relatively weak. In this paper, we first discuss likely causes for this weak link and present the argument that monetary commitment is not credible in itself. It can grant price stability best if it is backed by an adequate assignment of economic policy. An empirical assessment based on panel data covering five decades and 22 OECD countries confirms the crucial role of a credibly backed monetary commitment to price stability

Interaction effects in econometrics

We provide practical advice for applied economists regarding robust specification and interpretation of linear regression models with interaction terms. We replicate a number of prominently published results using interaction effects and examine if they are robust to reasonable specification permutations.falsePublishe