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Two Steps Forward - One Step Back? Evaluating Contradicting Child Care Policies in Germany

We apply a structural model of mothers’ labor supply and child care choices to evaluate the effects of two child care reforms in Germany that were introduced simultaneously. A legal claim to subsidized child care became effective for children aged 1 year or older. Moreover, a new child care allowance (‘Betreuungsgeld’) came into effect. It is granted to families who do not use publicly subsidized child ...

Exercise at Different Ages and Appendicular Lean Mass and Strength in Later Life: Results from the Berlin Aging Study II

Background. Excessive loss of muscle mass in advanced age is a major risk factor for decreased physical ability and falls. Physical activity and exercise training are typically recommended to maintain muscle mass and prevent weakness. How exercise in different stages of life relates to muscle mass, grip strength, and risk for weakness in later life is not well understood.Methods. Baseline data on 891 ...

Housing Market Fundamentals, Housing Quality and Energy Consumption: Evidence from Germany

This study investigates the relationship between regional housing market fundamentals and energy consumption. We argue that dwellings, in particularly rental properties, are not only consumer goods, but also constitute financial market assets. Properties are spatially fixed and traded in regional contexts, where real estate market characteristics like vacancy, income levels, and expectations determine ...

International Knowledge Spillovers through High-Tech Imports and R&D of Foreign-Owned Firms

The international transmission of knowledge through import spillovers, as a source of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth, has received much attention in the literature. We investigate two additional direct channels through which R&D disseminates: the import of high-technology goods and the internationalization of business R&D. Building on an extensive data-set, covering both developing and industrial ...

Productivity in German Manufacturing Firms: Does Fixed-Term Employment Matter?

This study empirically analyses how the use of fixed-term employment affects labour productivity of establishments. To this end, a large data set of German manufacturing establishments and various panel data models are used in order to test the expected non-linear relationship between labour productivity and the use of fixed-term employees. The analysis takes into account the possible distortions that ...

Locus of Control and Mothers' Return to Employment

Is the German Retail Gasoline Market Competitive? A Spatial-Temporal Analysis Using Quantile Regression

We explore whether noncompetitive pricing prevails in Germany’s retail gasoline market by examining the influence of the crude oil price on the retail gasoline price, focusing specifically on how this influence varies according to the brand and to the degree of competition in the vicinity of the station. Our analysis identifies several factors other than cost—including the absence of nearby competitors ...

A New Look at Intergenerational Mobility in Germany: Compared to the U.S.

Motivated by contradictory evidence on intergenerational mobility in Germany, I present a cross-country comparison of Germany and the U.S., reassessing the question of whether intergenerational mobility is higher in Germany than in the U.S. I can reproduce the standard result from the literature, which states that the German intergenerational elasticity estimates are lower than those for the U.S. However, ...

Voting for Direct Democratic Participation: Evidence from an Initiative Election

We study a constitutional change in the German State of Bavaria where citizens, not politicians, granted themselves more say in politics at the local level through a state initiative election in 1995. This institutional setting allows us to observe revealed preferences for direct democracy and to identify factors which explain these preferences. Empirical evidence suggests that support for direct democracy ...

Effective European Antitrust: Does EC Merger Policy Generate Deterrence?

We estimate the deterrence effects of European Commission (EC) merger policy instruments over the 1990–2009 period. Our empirical results suggest phase-1 remedies uniquely generate robust deterrence as—unlike phase-1 withdrawals, phase-2 remedies, and preventions—phase-1 remedies lead to fewer merger notifications in subsequent years. Furthermore, the deterrence effects of phase-1 remedies work best ...