This paper investigates the mental health consequences of spousal death and the role of survivor benefits in mitigating these effects. Using Dutch administrative data and a staggered difference-in-differences, we first document a significant increase in the consumption of benzodiazepines - a proxy for deteriorating mental health - following widowhood (up to +3 percentage points, or +30%, in the...
Der englische Originaltitel des Seminars lautet: “Spousal death, mental health and survivor benefits”. Die Präsentation findet auf Englisch statt. Eine kurze Zusammenfassung zum Vortrag ist nur auf der englischen Veranstaltungsseite verfügbar!
Many couples face a trade-off between advancing one spouse’s career or the other’s. We study this trade-off using administrative data from Germany and Sweden. We first conduct an event-study analysis of couples moving across commuting zones and find that relocation increases men’s earnings more than women’s, with strikingly similar patterns in Germany and Sweden. Using a sample of mass layoff...
Selbst ohne die Kindergrundsicherung kann der Staat Milliarden für arme Kinder mobilisieren – ohne mehr Geld auszugeben. Dafür müsste er nur an gewisse Freibeträge ran. Mit großen Ambitionen war die Bundesregierung angetreten, um Kinderarmut durch die Einführung einer Kindergrundsicherung zu bekämpfen. Diese Kindergrundsicherung steht jedoch nun vor dem Scheitern, auch weil es vielen nicht um den Inhalt ...
This paper analyses trends in mortality inequality in 330 Chilean communes from 1990 to 2010 for different age groups and both genders. Chile had substantial inequalities in local-level mortality rates in 1990 but by 2010 these disparities had significantly decreased, especially among infants, children and the elderly. The only exception was Chilean men aged 20–39, for whom inequality in mortality ...
Informal childcare care by grandparents, other relatives or friends is an important source of support in many Western countries, including Germany. Yet the role of this type of care is often overlooked in accounts of social policies supporting families with children, which tend to focus on formal childcare. This article examines whether the large formal childcare expansion occurring in Germany in the ...
How do students’ earnings expectations differ by being the first in their family to attend university (FiF) and how do they affect field of study choice? We leverage unique survey and administrative data to document sizable gaps in expected earnings between FiF and non-FiF students. Our data can explain two-thirds of this gap, with the largest share attributable to field of study choice. We show that ...