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DIW Discussion Papers 756 / 2007
Since the turn of the millennium the problem of credibility of the social security system has spread to the private pension funds sector. This is evident for those countries, like Australia and Iceland, that have very large funded pensions assets as a result of strong pension reforms. The problem of trust could prevent pension fund investment from continuing to grow, weakening the privatization of ...
2007| Mariangela Bonasia, Oreste Napolitano
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DIW Discussion Papers 755 / 2007
This paper studies the determinants of naturalization among Turkish and ex-Yugoslav immigrants in Germany differentiating between actual and planned citizenship. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we measure the impact that integration and ethnicity indicators exert on the probability to naturalize beyond the standard individual and human capital characteristics. A robust finding is that German ...
2007| Amelie Constant, Liliya Gataullina, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 754 / 2007
We investigate price index convergence on the base of regional data for 439 German districts. Prices refer to the overall consumer price index as well as to the index without housing prices. To increase the efficiency of the testing framework, a panel unit root analysis is performed, where cross section dependencies are taken into account. The tests indicate a lack of regional price convergence. While ...
2007| Christian Dreger, Reinhold Kosfeld
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DIW Discussion Papers 753 / 2007
Set-point theory has dominated the field of subjective well-being (SWB). It has served as a classic Kuhn research paradigm, being extended and refined for thirty years to take in new results. The central plank of the theory is that adult set-points do not change, except just temporarily in the face of major life events. There was always some 'discordant data', including evidence that some events are ...
2007| Bruce Headey
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DIW Discussion Papers 752 / 2007
This paper assesses the dynamics of treatment effects arising from variation in the duration of training. We use German administrative data that have the extraordinary feature that the amount of treatment varies continuously from 10 days to 395 days (i.e. 13 months). This feature allows us to estimate a continuous dose-response function that relates each value of the dose, i.e. days of training, to ...
2007| Jochen Kluve, Hilmar Schneider, Arne Uhlendorff, Zhong Zhao
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DIW Discussion Papers 751 / 2007
This paper addresses the existence of Nash equilibria in one-way flow or directed network models in a number of different settings. In these models players form costly links with other players and obtain resources from them through the directed path connecting them. We find that heterogeneity in the costs of establishing links play a crucial role in the existence of Nash networks. We also provide conditions ...
2007| Pascal Billand, Christophe Bravard, Sudipta Sarangi
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DIW Discussion Papers 750 / 2007
Interregional differentials in nominal wages in the Russian Federation are huge compared to other countries. Using the NOBUS micro-data and a methodology based on the estimation of the wage equation augmented by aggregate regional characteristics, we show that these differentials have a compensative nature. Russian workers receive wage compensations for living in regions with a higher price level and ...
2007| Aleksey Oshchepkov
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DIW Discussion Papers 749 / 2007
This study analyzes the treatment effects of public training programs for the unemployed in Germany. Based on propensity score matching methods we extend the picture that has been sketched in previous studies by estimating treatment effects of medium-term programs for different sub-groups with respect to vocational education and age. Our results indicate that program participation has a positive impact ...
2007| Ulf Rinne, Marc Schneider, Arne Uhlendorff
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DIW Discussion Papers 748 / 2007
The paper analyzes the incidence, the severity and the determinants of household poverty in Ukraine during transition using two comparable surveys from 1996 and 2004. We measure poverty using income and consumption and contrast the effects of various poverty lines. Poverty in both periods follows some of the determinants commonly identified in the literature, including greater poverty among households ...
2007| Tilman Brück, Alexander M. Danzer, Alexander Muravyev, Natalia Weißhaar
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DIW Discussion Papers 747 / 2007
Staatliche Instrumente zur Beschäftigungsförderung und Einkommenssicherung im Niedriglohnbereich durch "Kombilohn-Modelle" existieren auch in Deutschland schon seit längerem und wurden im Zuge der jüngsten Arbeitsmarktreformen ausgeweitet. Diese haben das Ziel, durch eine einkommensabhängige Lohnsubvention geringe Erwerbseinkommen zu ergänzen und die finanziellen Anreize zur Aufnahme einer gering entlohnten ...
2007| Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 746 / 2007
This paper examines whether the behaviour of the real exchange rate is associated with a particular regime for the nominal exchange rate, like fixed and flexible exchange rate arrangements. The analysis is based on 16 annual real exchange rates and covers a long time span, 1870-2006. Four subperiods are distinguished and linked to exchange rate regimes: the Gold Standard, the interwar float, the Bretton ...
2007| Christian Dreger, Eric Girardin
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DIW Discussion Papers 745 / 2007
In a series of experimental games, each of two players may choose between remuneration based on either private or team effort. Although at least one of the players has the subgame perfect equilibrium strategy to choose remuneration based on private effort, we frequently observe team remuneration chosen by both players. Team remuneration allows for high payoff for each player for cooperation, but at ...
2007| Claudia Keser, Claude Montmarquette
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DIW Discussion Papers 744 / 2007
"Marginal Employment", i.e. employment at low working hours and earnings not covered by social security, has been gaining importance in the German economy over the past decade. Using a large newly available panel data set and statistical matching techniques, we analyse the effects of marginal employment on future individual outcome variables such as unemployment, regular employment and earnings. In ...
2007| Ronny Freier, Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 743 / 2007
Innovation is at the basis of economic development and as such, it is instrumental for developing countries. We review the literature on innovation from the perspectives of four select branches of economics to build a conceptual framework of innovation applicable to developing countries. The conceptual framework includes insights from the surveyed literature and identifies areas of further research. ...
2007| Andréanne Léger, Sushmita Swaminathan
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DIW Discussion Papers 742 / 2007
Many studies analyzed in depth how aging affects aggregate economic performance. But analyses of these effects on the employment structure are scarce and they do not consider that consumption patterns, the supply of goods and services, and also sectoral labor productivity are all likely to adjust to aging and will change. Hence, regression analysis of sectoral employment shares is proposed that controls ...
2007| Ulrich Thießen
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DIW Discussion Papers 741 / 2007
The neoclassical growth model predicts convergence of productivity or per capita output levels across regions. If participation in the labor force is constant, convergence of per capita income is implied. We investigate this hypothesis for the Iranian economy using data on demand deposits as a proxy for GDP. Furthermore, the analysis controls for the effects of rent seeking. Due to its impact on the ...
2007| Christian Dreger, Teymur Rahmani, Hans-Friedrich Eckey
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DIW Discussion Papers 740 / 2007
In this paper we used the procedures developed in the Kumar and Russell (2002) growth-accounting study to examine cross-country growth during the 1990's. Using a data set comprising developed, newly industrialized, developing and transitional economies, we decomposed the growth of output per worker into components attributable to technological catch-up, technological change and capital accumulation. ...
2007| Oleg Badunenko, Daniel J. Henderson, Valentin Zelenyuk
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DIW Discussion Papers 739 / 2007
This study compares two alternative approaches to estimate parameters in gravity equations. We compare the traditional OLS approach applied to the log-linear form of the gravity model with the Poisson Quasi Maximum Likelihood (PQML) estimation procedure applied to the non-linear multiplicative specification of the gravity model. We use the trade flows for all products, for all manufacturing products ...
2007| Boriss Siliverstovs, Dieter Schumacher
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DIW Discussion Papers 738 / 2007
Over the last decades the German education system underwent numerous reforms in order to improve "equality of opportunity", i.e. to guarantee all pupils equal access to higher education. At the same time internationally comparative evidence yields that Germany features particularly low intergenerational mobility with respect to educational attainment. This study investigates the development in intergenerational ...
2007| Guido Heineck, Regina T. Riphahn
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DIW Discussion Papers 737 / 2007
This paper contributes to the debate about the optimal design of tax-transfer systems. Based on the theory of optimal taxation, combined with microsimulation and microeconometric techniques we derive the welfare function which makes the current German tax and transfer system for single women optimal. Furthermore, we compare the welfare function conditional on the presence and age of children and assess ...
2007| Peter Haan, Katharina Wrohlich