The replacement rate that maintains income satisfaction through retirement: The question of income-dependence

Benchmark replacement rates are commonly used to set up saving plans or to assess retirement preparedness. An open question is whether high earners need the same replacement rate as low earners. In this paper, I apply the GAESE framework, an approach known from the equivalence scale literature, to assess how the replacement rate that maintains income satisfaction through retirement relates to income levels. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, and applying fixed-effects ordered logit models, I find that the benchmark replacement rate decreases with income. For singles, this finding is consistent across many modifications of the approach, whereas for couples the finding is sensitive to the composition of the retiree household, i.e. whether or not the retiree’s partner is still employed

The Economic Costs of Life-Course Transitions

This dissertation tackles the methodological challenges involved in estimating the effects of life-course transitions on economic well-being, and it investigates income, consumption, and subjective measures of well-being before and after these transitions. Additionally, new sources of data are taken into account to improve our understanding of why people move from one labor force status to another. The first chapter is a comparison of econometric methods applied to one dataset. The second chapter establishes an econometric framework, and discusses two applications. The third chapter generalizes the framework from the second chapter and applies it to German survey data. The fourth chapter uses existing labor market transition models, but adds a new source of data

Financial inclusion in Peru

Poverty is ostensibly a multi-dimensional issue. Economic, social and political forces play a role in its creation as well as its eradication. Financial inclusion, understood as the provision of micro-credit to populations that have never before had access to lending, has for some time been considered a useful way to help reduce poverty. In this paper, we have taken a two-pronged approach: (1) we tested the power of financial inclusion in influencing poverty outcomes, and (2) we identified those features in the microfinance institutions (MFIs) that closely determine the extent of financial inclusion. To this end, we gathered original data on financial inclusion in Peru for three years, 2008-2010, and employed a panel data analysis which concluded that financial inclusion has an alleviating effect on poverty and that larger MFIs – and those that target the poorer clients – tend to be more successful in enhancing financial inclusion

Debt Relief and Good Governance: New Evidence

Debt relief has been an instrument of development cooperation for almost 50 years. Its track record is mixed at best, and its drivers were mainly political during its practice. However, in the early 2000s, the HIPC Initiative increased the economic rationality remarkably, because LDCs had to deliver before they were relieved from their debt. Since then, debt as well as its relief has fallen significantly. In addition, the recipient countries have changed, more fragile countries are among the top recipients. We discuss the hypothesis that debt relief has changed another time; it nowadays seems to be – at least partly – a diplomatic instrument. We find that there is no significant improvement of governance quality within our sample of developing countries. Our regression results show that improvements in governance quality lead to higher level of debt forgiveness in 2000-2004 but not in the subsequent periods. Instead, we find that debt relief is determined by governmental spending behavior of the creditor country, which in turn can be explained by the fractionalization of the government. The analysis uses data from 1995 to 2013 and applies a 2-Step-Heckman filter model and a panel model with fixed country and year effects

Debt Relief and Good Governance: New Evidence

Since the introduction of the HIPC Initiative in the early 2000s, indebted LICs had to show a decent governance performance before their debts were forgiven. We discuss the hypothesis that during the follow-up, Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), the World Bank has refrained from this policy, and that debt relief decisions are rather politically driven. We test different political economy theories by applying panel models to a set of debtor and creditor countries, respectively. Our main finding shows, that improvements in governance quality led to higher levels of debt forgiveness in 2000-2004, but not in the subsequent periods

a comparison of approaches for the estimation of equivalence scales using German expenditure data

Equivalence scales are routinely applied to adjust the income of households of different sizes and compositions. Because of their practical importance for the measurement of inequality and poverty, a large number of methods for the estimation of equivalence scales have been proposed. Until now, however, no comprehensive comparison of current methods has been conducted. In this paper, we employ German household expenditure data to estimate equivalence scales using several parametric, semiparametric, and nonparametric approaches. Using a single dataset, we find that some approaches yield more plausible results than others while implausible scales are mostly based on linear Engel curves. The results we consider plausible are close to the modified OECD scale, and to the square root scale for larger households

Correlates of testosterone change as men age

Objective: The literature on testosterone (T) in men reports diverse correlates of T, some with minimal empirical support and most with little indication of how they change with advancing age. We test eight putative correlations across age.Method: Correlations were tested on a large sample of British men.Results: Seven of eight correlations replicated. Most change across men's life courses. The diurnal cycle of T is considerably weaker among older than younger men. Single men have higher T than married men of the same age; however, this difference lessens as men get older. Elevated T among smokers is less pronounced as men age. The inverse relationship between obesity and T is sustained across the adult age range. The lessening of T with age is well established, however there is disagreement about the course of decline. We find T having a steep decline around age 30, with possibly a rebound around age 50, after which levels remain roughly constant. Correlations involving health become stronger among older men. After age 30 or 40, the inverse relationships between T and HbA1c, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome all become increasingly significant, though not necessarily strong in magnitude.Conclusion: Most putative correlates of T are replicated. There is a basis here for the generalization that among older men, those healthy have higher T than those who are not, but not a lot higher

Financial inclusion and poverty: The case of Peru

Poverty is ostensibly a multi-dimensional issue. Economic, social and political forces play a role in its creation as well as in its eradication. Financial inclusion, understood as the provision of micro-loans to populations that have never before had access to lending, has for some time been considered a useful way to help reduce poverty. In this paper, we employ a panel data analysis based on a unique 2008-2010 database on financial inclusion in Peru. Exploiting the variation between departments, our regression results show that financial inclusion does have an alleviating effect on various indicators of poverty. However, coefficients are small and insignificant. Instead, the access to communication technology, such as the internet, plays a superior role in explaining poverty in Peru

In and out of unemployment—Labour market transitions and the role of testosterone

Biological processes have provided new insights into diverging labour market trajectories. This paper uses population variation in testosterone levels to explain transition probabilities into and out of unemployment. We examine labour market transitions for 2004 initially employed and 111 initially unemployed British men from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (“Understanding Society”) between 2011 and 2013. We address the endogeneity of testosterone levels by using genetic variation as instrumental variables (Mendelian Randomization). We find that for both initially unemployed men as well as initially employed men, higher testosterone levels reduce the risk of unemployment. Based on previous studies and descriptive evidence, we argue that these effects are likely driven by differences in cognitive and non-cognitive skills as well as job search behaviour of men with higher testosterone levels. Our findings suggest that latent biological processes can affect job search behaviour and labour market outcomes without necessarily relating to illness and disability

Laplace-Transformation in der Praxis

Liebe Leser, mit diesem Werk erhalten Sie die derzeit umfangreichste Tabelle korrespondierender Funktionen, die Sie zur Zeit erwerben können. Dieses Buch orientiert sich an der praxisbezogenen Anwendung der Laplace-Transformation und stellt außerdem die Theorie unter dem Aspekt der Ingenieur-Praxis in strenger, aber auch verständlicher Weise dar. Zahlreiche, bis ins Detail durchgeführte Beispiele aus der Praxis der Elektrotechnik und des Maschinenbaus illustrieren die vielseitige Anwendbarkeit der Laplace-Transformation