The Effects of Occupational Knowledge: Job Information Centers, Educational Choices, and Labor Market Outcomes

This study examines the causal link between individuals' occupational knowledge, educational choices, and labor market outcomes. We proxy occupational knowledge with mandatory visits to job information centers (JICs) in Germany while still attending school. Exogenous variation in the location and timing of JIC openings allow estimating causal effects in a difference-in-difference setup. Combining linked survey-administrative data with data on JICs permits to detect whether individuals benefited from the comprehensive information service when they were young. The results suggest that individuals, who went to school in administrative districts with a JIC, have higher educational attainments and a smoother transfer to the labor market than students who did not have access to these facilities. However, we find no effects on individuals' earnings in their first job or later in life. Overall, our results confirm the importance of policies that promote occupational knowledge among young adults

Door Opener or Waste of Time? The Effects of Student Internships on Labor Market Outcomes

This paper studies the causal effect of student internship experience on labor market choices and wages later in life. We use variation in the introduction and abolishment of mandatory internships at German universities as an instrument for completing an internship while attending university. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant wage returns of about six percent in both OLS and IV regressions. This result is mainly driven by a higher propensity of working full-time and a lower propensity of being unemployed in the first five years after entering the labor market. Moreover, former interns pursue doctoral studies less frequently. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation. Heterogeneous effects are not found across other subgroups of the population

Estimating heterogeneous returns to education in Germany via conditional heteroskedasticity

In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010) that bases identification on the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity. Compared to IV methods, key advantages of this approach are unbiased estimates in the absence of instruments and parameter interpretation that is not bounded to local average treatment effects. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2.3% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support the findings

Estimating Heterogeneous Returns to Education in Germany via Conditional Second Moments

In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany. I circumvent potential drawbacks of IV by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010). In this approach identification is not based on instruments but on the presence of heteroskedasticity. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support my findings

Door Opener or Waste of Time? The Effects of Student Internships on Labor Market Outcomes

This paper studies the causal effect of student internship experience on wages later in life. We use variation in the introduction and abolition of mandatory internships at German universities as an instrument for completing an internship while studying. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant wage returns of about six percent in both OLS and IV regressions. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation, and for graduates in humanities and social sciences

Estimating heterogeneous returns to education in Germany via conditional heteroskedasticity

In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010) that bases identification on the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity. Compared to IV methods, key advantages of this approach are unbiased estimates in the absence of instruments and parameter interpretation that is not bounded to local average treatment effects. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2.3% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support the findings

Estimating heterogeneous returns to education in Germany via conditional heteroskedasticity

In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010) that bases identification on the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity. Compared to IV methods, key advantages of this approach are unbiased estimates in the absence of instruments and parameter interpretation that is not bounded to local average treatment effects. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2.3% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support the findings

Anyone up for helping the Fisherman's wife? More solidarity with accidental misery than with man-made misery

We examine the willingness to donate depending on whether “misery” is random generated or self-inflicted by too high demands in bilateral negotiations. We find that randomness has a positive influence on the total amount of donation. In case of self-inflicted “misery” we observe that the subject who may have caused the unfavourable situation receives significantly less than the perceived innocent subject.altruism, bargaining experiment

Lohnspreizung in Deutschland: Eine Literaturübersicht

Die vorliegende Literaturstudie gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle Befunde zur Lohnspreizung in Deutschland. Es zeigt sich, dass die Lohnspreizung in den 1990er Jahren deutlich angestiegen ist, wobei besonders die unteren Einkommensgruppen von der zunehmenden Ungleichheit betroffen waren. Im internationalen Vergleich weist die Bundesrepublik nunmehr ein Ungleichheitsmaß auf, das klar über dem europäischen Durchschnitt liegt. Als Ursachen dieser Entwicklung werden Einflüsse des technischen Fortschritts und internationalen Handels sowie institutionelle Variablen diskutiert. Eine theoretische und empirische Analyse der Wirkungszusammenhänge von Lohnspreizung ergibt keine Evidenz dafür, dass das deutsche Beschäftigungsproblem im Tradeoff zwischen 'equity and efficiency' auf Kosten der Lohngleichheit gelöst werden kann