Short-Run and Long-Term Effects of Childbirth on Mothers' Employment and Working Hours across Institutional Regimes: An Empirical Analysis Based on the European Community Household Panel

The employment behavior of mothers is strongly influenced by labor market regulations and certain institutional arrangements, which both vary greatly across European countries. Using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) 1994-2001 for Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, which represent four distinct 'institutional regimes', we estimate the short-run and long-term effects of childbirth on married women's employment and working hours. Estimation results show that these effects vary across the four countries in accordance with prevailing institutional regulations.employment and working hours, labor supply, childbirth, European Community Household Panel, panel data models

Public Pensions, Changing Employment Patterns, and the Impact of Pension Reforms across Birth Cohorts: A Microsimulation Analysis for Germany

We analyze the impact of changing employment patterns and pension reforms on the future level of public pensions across birth cohorts in Germany. The analysis is based on a rich dataset that combines household survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and process-produced microdata from the German pension insurance. A microsimulation model is developed which accounts for cohort effects in individual employment and unemployment and earnings over the lifecycle as well as the differential impact of recent pension reforms. Cohort effects for individuals born between 1937 and 1971 vary greatly by region, gender and education and strongly affect lifecycle wage profiles. The largest effects can be observed for younger cohorts in East Germany and for the low educated. Using simulated life cycle employment and income profiles, we project gross future pensions across cohorts taking into account changing demographics and recent pension reforms. Simulations show that pension levels for East German men and women will fall dramatically among younger birth cohorts, not only because of policy reforms but due to higher cumulated unemployment. For West German men, the small reduction of average pension levels among younger birth cohorts is mainly driven by the impact of pension reforms, while future pension levels of West German women are increasing or stable due to rising labor market participation of younger birth cohorts.public pensions, cohort effects, microsimulation

Public pensions, changing employment patterns, and the impact of pension reforms across birth cohorts: A microsimulation analysis for Germany

We analyze the impact of changing employment patterns and pension reforms on the future level of public pensions across birth cohorts in Germany. The analysis is based on a rich dataset that combines household survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and process-produced microdata from the German pension insurance. A microsimulation model is developed which accounts for cohort effects in individual employment and unemployment and earnings over the lifecycle as well as the differential impact of recent pension reforms. Cohort effects for individuals born between 1937 and 1971 vary greatly by region, gender and education and strongly affect lifecycle wage profiles. The largest effects can be observed for younger cohorts in East Germany and for the low educated. Using simulated life cycle employment and income profiles, we project gross future pensions across cohorts taking into account changing demographics and recent pension reforms. Simulations show that pension levels for East German men and women will fall dramatically among younger birth cohorts, not only because of policy reforms but due to higher cumulated unemployment. For West German men, the small reduction of average pension levels among younger birth cohorts is mainly driven by the impact of pension reforms, while future pension levels of West German women are increasing or stable due to rising labor market participation of younger birth cohorts. --Public pensions,cohort effects,microsimulation

Microscopic Theory of Linear and Nonlinear Terahertz Spectroscopy of Semiconductors

This Thesis presents a fully microscopic theory to describe terahertz (THz)-induced processes in optically-excited semiconductors. The formation process of excitons and other quasi-particles after optical excitation has been studied in great detail for a variety of conditions. Here, the formation process is not modelled but a realistic initial many-body state is assumed. In particular, the linear THz response is reviewed and it is demonstrated that correlated quasi-particles such as excitons and plasmons can be unambiguously detected via THz spectroscopy. The focus of the investigations, however, is on situations where the optically-excited many-body state is excited by intense THz fields. While weak pulses detect the many-body state, strong THz pulses control and manipulate the quasi-particles in a way that is not accessible via conventional techniques. The nonlinear THz dynamics of exciton populations is especially interesting because similarities and differences to optics with atomic systems can be studied

Regional convergence and economic performance: a case study of the West German Laender

In the paper we analyze the convergence process of the West German Laender from 1970 to 1995 using descriptive tools as well as panel estimation methods. Although there have been some winners in this process, the main finding is that convergence was insufficient in the sense that no gains have been achieved with respect to a stronger harmonization of the economic performances in the Laender. Some of them proofed to be unable to respond adequately to structural changes, whereas others successfully overcame those challenges. Panel estimates of production functions of the Laender reveal no significant differences in the production technology across Laender. -- Die Arbeit untersucht, ob im Zeitraum von 1970 bis 1996 eine Konvergenz im wirtschaftlichen Wachstum der westlichen Bundesländer stattgefunden hat. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß insbesondere die südlichen Bundesländer ihre relative Position verbessern konnten. Jene Bundesländer, die schon 1970 als ?strukturschwach? galten, schafften es nicht, den Abstand zu verringern. Der Strukturwandel wurde von den einzelnen Bundesländern mit unterschiedlichem Erfolg bewältigt. Eine Länder vermochten daraus Vorteile für ihre Entwicklung zu ziehen, während andere nur unzureichend auf diese Herausforderung reagierten. Insgesamt kann im Untersuchungszeitraum weder von einer Konvergenz noch von einer Divergenz der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in den Ländern gesprochen werden. Dem widerspricht nicht, daß einige Ländern (Hessen und Bayern) insgesamt erfolgreicher in ihrer Entwicklung waren als die übrigen Bundesländer.

a microsimulation analysis for Germany

We analyze the impact of changing employment patterns and pension reforms on the future level of public pensions across birth cohorts in Germany. The analysis is based on a rich dataset that combines household survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and process-produced microdata from the German pension insurance. A microsimulation model is developed which accounts for cohort effects in individual employment and unemployment and earnings over the lifecycle as well as the differential impact of recent pension reforms. Cohort effects for individuals born between 1937 and 1971 vary greatly by region, gender and education and strongly affect lifecycle wage profiles. The largest effects can be observed for younger cohorts in East Germany and for the low educated. Using simulated life cycle employment and income profiles, we project gross future pensions across cohorts taking into account changing demographics and recent pension reforms. Simulations show that pension levels for East German men and women will fall dramatically among younger birth cohorts, not only because of policy reforms but due to higher cumulated unemployment. For West German men, the small reduction of average pension levels among younger birth cohorts is mainly driven by the impact of pension reforms, while future pension levels of West German women are increasing or stable due to rising labor market participation of younger birth cohorts

Coupling different discretizations for fluid structure interaction in a monolithic approach

In this thesis we present a monolithic coupling approach for the simulation of phenomena involving interacting fluid and structure using different discretizations for the subproblems. For many applications in fluid dynamics, the Finite Volume method is the first choice in simulation science. Likewise, for the simulation of structural mechanics the Finite Element method is one of the most, if not the most, popular discretization method. However, despite the advantages of these discretizations in their respective application domains, monolithic coupling schemes have so far been restricted to a single discretization for both subproblems. We present a fluid structure coupling scheme based on a mixed Finite Volume/Finite Element method that combines the benefits of these discretizations. An important challenge in coupling fluid and structure is the transfer of forces and velocities at the fluidstructure interface in a stable and efficient way. In our approach this is achieved by means of a fully implicit formulation, i.e., the transfer of forces and displacements is carried out in a common set of equations for fluid and structure. We assemble the two different discretizations for the fluid and structure subproblems as well as the coupling conditions for forces and displacements into a single large algebraic system. Since we simulate real world problems, as a consequence of the complexity of the considered geometries, we end up with algebraic systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. This necessitates the use of parallel solution techniques. Our work covers the design and implementation of the proposed heterogeneous monolithic coupling approach as well as the efficient solution of the arising large nonlinear systems on distributed memory supercomputers. We apply Newton’s method to linearize the fully implicit coupled nonlinear fluid structure interaction problem. The resulting linear system is solved with a Krylov subspace correction method. For the preconditioning of the iterative solver we propose the use of multilevel methods. Specifically, we study a multigrid as well as a two-level restricted additive Schwarz method. We illustrate the performance of our method on a benchmark example and compare the afore mentioned different preconditioning strategies for the parallel solution of the monolithic coupled system