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

State dependence in welfare receipt: transitions before and after a reform

We study state dependence in welfare receipt and investigate whether welfare transitions changed after a welfare reform. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we apply dynamic multinomial logit estimators and find that state dependence in welfare receipt is not a central feature of the German welfare system. We find that welfare transitions changed after the reform: transitions from welfare to employment became more likely and persistence in welfare and inactivity declined. We observe a large relative increase in transitions from employment to welfare. Immigrants' responsiveness to the labor market situation increased after the reform

Welfare receipt misreporting in survey data and its consequences for state dependence estimates: new insights from linked administrative and survey data

Abstract In many advanced welfare states, welfare recipients often receive benefits for long periods. This persistence of welfare receipt can be caused by two distinct mechanisms: genuine or spurious state dependence. Knowledge of which of the two mechanisms drives the observed state dependence is important because the policy implications are different. Most of the empirical evidence on state dependence relies on survey data. However, survey data on welfare receipt are subject to substantial measurement error (i.e., misreporting of welfare benefit receipt), which may also bias state dependence estimates. This paper uses rich linked survey and administrative data to measure the effect of misreporting in the survey data on the estimated state dependence in welfare receipt in Germany. We find a rate of underreporting of welfare benefits of 8.6%. Recipients with relatively good labour market chances tend to underreport benefits more frequently. Overreporting benefits is less pronounced with a rate of 1.6%. Within the survey data, we observe more transitions into and out of the welfare system. However, our estimates of state dependence in welfare receipt based on a dynamic random effects model reveal that the effect of misreporting on estimated state dependence is small, even when we distinguish between working and non-working recipients in the model

Job search methods and immigrant earnings: A longitudinal analysis of the role of bridging social capital

This paper analyses how finding a new job affects the earnings of immigrants. I hypothesize that job changes are more successful for individuals who have access to bridging social capital. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (1996–2011), fixed-effects models show that finding a new job results in higher earnings only when immigrants have both native German friends and high levels of human capital. The effect is, however, not dependent on the search method: both formal (advertisement, employment agency), and informal search methods (referrals via friends) result in higher earnings. The presented evidence shows that bridging social capital can be activated and converted into a better position on the labour market. However, the effect of contact with natives is limited to those who are higher educated, or who have good German language proficiency, suggesting that only those individuals who are better off already profit from bridging social capital

The educational attainment of second-generation mainland Chinese immigrants in Taiwan

Second-generation political immigrants, Educational attainment, Language assimilation, I21, J24, J62,

Early labour-market experiences of second-generation immigrants in Sweden

This article investigates second generation immigrant's early labour-market performances in Sweden. To study their labour-market success we estimate dynamic transition rate models-Cox type proportional hazards, in a competing risk framework using register based panel-data set. Our results reveal that parental resources affect not only second-generation immigrants' continuing education but also their later labour-market success. The study verifies that finding a job is difficult for second-generation immigrants and the significant unobserved-heterogeneity parameter estimate may indicate discrimination. As a whole, second-generation immigrants have worse labour-market performances compared to their native-born counterparts.