Birthright citizenship and education - Do immigrant children need a passport to thrive?

This paper evaluates the effect of becoming citizen of the host-country at birth on educational outcomes of immigrant children in Germany. We exploit the introduction of birthright citizenship for newborn children in Germany starting on the 1st of January, 2000, to obtain difference-in-differences estimates for the effect of citizenship on the children s educational performance, in particular, their transition to different tracks of secondary school. Using data from the newly established National Education Panel Study (NEPS), the empirical results indicate an increase in the probability of migrant children to enter the middle school track rather than the lower one. This suggests that growing up with the citizenship of the host country has a beneficial impact on the later integration of migrant children

Information on the ballot, voter satisfaction and election turnout

If voters do not perceive meaningful differences between parties and candidates, they tend to stay at home or choose by other factors like style or likability. This study examines whether including different kinds of information about the candidates on the ballot affects the satisfaction and turnout of voters in low-profile elections in which most candidates are unknown and party-identification cannot be used to distinguish them. This case often appears in election systems with either intra-party primaries or open lists, in particular at lower institutional levels. The empirical analysis is based on an experimental exit-poll of voters at local elections in two German states in 2014 in which respondents faced a hypothetical election with different information treatments. The main results are: (1) More information on the ballot increases voter satisfaction, but the marginal effect is decreasing. (2) Profession information is particularly useful for voters. (3) This translates directly into a greater willingness to take part in the hypothetical election ('turnout'), especially for individuals unsatisfied with the real election system. (4) The last result can be confirmed with aggregate turnout data of German local elections after reunification

Birthright citizenship and parental labor market integration

Do migrant parents change their labor market behavior when their children are born with the citizenship of the host country? In this study, I implement a difference-in-discontinuities approach to examine possible adjustments in employment and working hours following the introduction of birthright citizenship for immigrant children in Germany in 2000. In particular, I compare the changes in labor market outcomes between the parents of migrant children born before and after the enactment date with those of children of mixed couples (migrants and Germans) who were unaffected by the law change. The analysis of data from the Microcensus from 2001 to 2008 suggests that mothers and fathers react differently to having a German-citizen child: While fathers' labor force participation is unaffected, I find mothers to be more likely to stay at home. By contrast, there seems to be no effect on the number of hours in the job

End-of-year spending and the long-run employment effects of training programs for the unemployed

This study re-estimates the employment effects of training programs for the unemployed using exogenous variation in participation caused by budget rules in Germany in the 1980s and early 1990s, resulting in the infamous "end-of-year spending". In addition to estimating complier effects with 2SLS, we implement a exible control-function approach to obtain the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). Our findings are: Participants who are only selected for budgetary reasons do not benefit from training programs. However, the ATT estimates suggest modest positive effects in the long run. Longer programs are more effective than shorter and more practice-oriented programs

Essays in immigration economics and political economy

This thesis revolves around two themes. The first is whether granting citizenship to immigrant children at birth affects their parents’ return migration decisions and integration into the host-country society. Evaluating the introduction of birthright citizenship in Germany in 2000, I show in chapter 1 that migrant families are less likely to return to their home countries if their children automatically obtain the German citizenship. Chapter 2 continues the analysis of the same reform and finds that it has different effects across integration dimensions. Finally, chapter 3 is dedicated to the second theme. It examines whether stating the profession of candidates in open-list elections influences voter satisfaction and voting behavior. The results of a field experiment conducted in Barcelona indicate that voters are more satisfied if they know the profession of the candidates and that candidates working in high-skill occupations enjoy an electoral advantage.Esta tesis estudia dos temas. El primero es si otorgar la nacionalidad a los hijos de inmigrantes afecta las decisiones de sus padres de retornar a su país y la integración en el país de destino. En el primer capítulo muestro que las familias migrantes tienen menos probabilidad de volver a sus países de origen si sus hijos automáticamente obtienen la nacionalidad alemana. El capítulo dos sigue analizando la misma reforma y encuentra que sus efectos varían entre diferentes dimensiones de integración. Finalmente, el capítulo tres se dedica al segundo tema, el efecto de incluir la profesión de los candidatos en elecciones con listas abiertas. Los resultados de un experimento de campo en Barcelona indican que los votantes están más satisfechos si conocen la profesión de los candidatos y que los candidatos que trabajan en ocupaciones cualificadas disfrutan de una ventaja electoral

Estimating the Causal Effect of Measured Endogenous Variables: Study 1 (Simulation Data)

This is a simulated data set (n = 10.000). It contains four variables q, t, e und u, which are all normally distributed with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. Further, there are two variables x and y, which depend on the other variables as follows:x = 0.5*q + 0.3*z + uy = 0.4*x + 0.6*q + eFor our analysis, y represents the dependent variable, x an endogenous explanatory variable, q an omitted variable, and t an exogenous instrumental variable. u and e are the equations’ error terms

Replication data for: "Estimating the causal effect of measured endogenous variables: A tutorial on experimentally randomized instrumental variables"

This page contains all data needed to replicate the results reported in the article "Estimating the causal effect of measured endogenous variables: A tutorial on experimentally randomized instrumental variables". There are three different folders: Review, Study 1, and Study 2. The folder “Review” comprises five files: 1. The file “ERIV_review” contains the data for the Review (in .dta format), which is summarized in Table 2 of the manuscript. 2. The file “ERIV_review_code” contains the code (in .do format) to replicate the results reported in Table 2. 3. The file “ERIV_kappa” contains the data (in .dta format) that was used to calculate the kappa coefficient of inter-rater agreement. 4. The file “ERIV_kappa_code” contains the code (in .do format) to replicate the kappa coefficient reported in the description of the review. 5. The file “ERIV_review_variables” contains the description of the variables in the datasets “ERIV_review” and “ERIV_kappa” (in .pdf format). The folder “Study 1” comprises three files: 1. The file “ERIV_study1” contains the data for Study 1 (in .dta format), which was used for the analyses reported in Table 3 and Table 4 of the manuscript. 2. The file “ERIV_study1_code” contains the code (in .do format) to generate the simulated dataset as well as the code to replicate the results reported in Table 3 and Table 4. 3. The file “ERIV_ study1_variables” contains the description of the variables in the dataset “ERIV_study1” (in .pdf format). The folder “Study 2” comprises three files: 1. The file “ERIV_study2” contains the data for Study 2 (in .dta format), which was used for the analyses reported in Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7 of the manuscript. 2. The file “ERIV_study2_code” contains the code (in .do format) to replicate the results reported in Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7. 3. The file “ERIV_ study2_variables” contains the description of the variables in the dataset “ERIV_study2” (in .pdf format)