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DIW Discussion Papers 600 / 2006
The influence of risk aversion on the decision to become self-employed is a much discussed topic in the entrepreneurial literature. Conventional wisdom asserts that the role model of an entrepreneur requires to make risky decisions in uncertain environments and hence that more risk-averse individuals are less likely to become an entrepreneur. Empirical tests of this assumption are scarce however, mainly ...
2006| Marco Caliendo, Frank M. Fossen, Alexander S. Kritikos
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DIW Discussion Papers 592 / 2006
In this paper we investigate how the expulsion of a player influences the out-come of a football match. Common sense implies a negative impact for the affected team. However, an old football myth suggests that such an expulsion might also be beneficial since it increases the team spirit as well as the efforts of the affected team. We make use of a unique dataset containing all games played in a World ...
2006| Marco Caliendo, Dubravko Radic
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DIW Discussion Papers 582 / 2006
Entrepreneurial activity is often regarded as an engine for economic growth and job creation. Through tax policy, governments possess a potential lever to influence the decisions of economic agents to start and close small businesses. In Germany, the top marginal income tax rates were reduced exclusively for entrepreneurs in 1994 and 1999/2000. These tax reforms provided two naturally defined control ...
2006| Frank M. Fossen, Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 573 / 2006
In this paper we suggest a Stata routine for multinomial logit models with unobserved heterogeneity using maximum simulated likelihood based on Halton sequences. The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, we provide a description of the technical implementation of the estimation routine and discuss its properties. Further, we compare our estimation routine to the Stata program gllamm which solves ...
2006| Peter Haan, Arne Uhlendorff
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DIW Discussion Papers 570 / 2006
In this paper, I suggest an empirical framework for the analysis of mothers' labor supply and child care choices, explicitly taking into account access restrictions to subsidized child care. This is particularly important for countries such as Germany, where subsidized child care is rationed and private child care is only available at considerably higher cost. I use a discrete choice panel data model ...
2006| Katharina Wrohlich
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DIW Discussion Papers 569 / 2006
Increasing work incentives for people with low incomes is a common topic in the policy debate across European countries. The "Mini-Job" reform in Germany - introduced on April 1, 2003 - can be seen in line with these policies, exempting labour income below a certain threshold from taxes and employees' social security contributions. We carry out an ex-post evaluation to identify the short-run effects ...
2006| Marco Caliendo, Katharina Wrohlich
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DIW Discussion Papers 565 / 2006
This paper models voters' preferences over central versus local education policies when there are private alternatives. Education is financed by income taxes and individuals are mobile between communities. Public education levels are chosen by majority vote. Contrary to conventional wisdom, centralisation may benefit the rich and poor, while the middle class prefer decentralised education. The model ...
2006| Rainald Borck
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DIW Discussion Papers 563 / 2006
Students from low-income families are eligible to student aid under the federal students' financial assistance scheme (BAfoeG) in Germany. We evaluate the effectiveness of a recent reform of student aid that substantially increased the amount received by eligible students to raise enrolment rates into tertiary education. We view this reform as a 'natural experiment' and apply the difference-in-difference ...
2006| Hans J. Baumgartner, Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 555 / 2006
Estimates of labour supply effects of recent UK reforms in the area of direct taxes and benefits show that policy can have significant influence on the level of employment. We confirm this in a simulation of in-work support system introduced into the German tax and benefit system. Our simulation results suggest that introducing in-work Tax Credits in Germany would increase employment of single individuals ...
2006| Peter Haan, Michal Myck
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DIW Discussion Papers 545 / 2006
The aggregate average wage is often used as an indicator of economic performance and welfare, and as such often serves as a benchmark for changes in the generosity of public transfers and for wage negotiations. Yet if economies experience a high degree of (nonrandom) fluctuation in employment the composition of the employed population will have a considerable effect on the computed average. In this ...
2006| Michal Myck, Leszek Morawski, Jerzy Mycielski