We analyze whether mothers’ parental leave decisions depend on their coworkers’ decisions. The identification of peer effects bears various challenges due to correlated characteristics within social groups. We therefore exploit quasi-random variation in the costs of parental leave induced by a policy reform in Germany. The reform encourages mothers to remain at home during the first year following ...
Globalisierung und Digitalisierung bieten vielfältige neue Möglichkeiten, jedoch sehen viele Menschen sie aber auch als Bedrohung ihrer sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Stellung. Wie gewichten Menschen diese Risiken? Wo erwarten sie Unterstützung vom Staat beziehungsweise eine gesellschaftliche Absicherung? In welchem Verhältnis steht die subjektiv empfundene soziale Sicherheit zu...
This empirical investigation into life satisfaction, using nationally representative German panel data, finds a substantial association with an individual’s thoughts about the future, whether they are optimistic or pessimistic about it. Furthermore, including individuals’ optimism and pessimism about the future substantially increases the explanatory power of standard life satisfaction models. The ...
We estimate the causal effect of maternal education on the mental health of mother’s children in late adolescence and adulthood. Theoretical considerations are ambiguous about a causal effect of maternal education on children’s mental health. To identify the causal effect of maternal education, we exploit exogenous variation in maternal years of schooling, caused by a compulsory schooling law reform ...
We show that the disposition to focus on favorable or unfavorable outcomes of risky situations affects willingness to take risk as measured by the general risk question. We demonstrate that this disposition, which we call risk conception, is strongly associated with optimism, a stable facet of personality, and that it predicts real-life risk taking. The general risk question captures this disposition ...
