We address the question of whether media influences occupational choices. To theoretically examine media effects, we construct a dynamic Bayesian occupational choice model with sequential decisions under ambiguity due to imperfect information. We show that sufficiently intensive positive media articles and reports about entrepreneurship increase the probability of self-employment and decrease the probability ...
The last 20 years have seen a substantial increase in enrolment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in several European countries. The expansion of ECEC services inevitably requires new staff. There is however a tension between a rapid growth of services via the creation of low-paid, low-qualified jobs and the aspiration, voiced unanimously by policy makers, to improve the qualification and ...
Calculations based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) show that after the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany in January 2015, the wage growth of eligible employees with low wages accelerated significantly. Before the reform, the nominal growth in contractual hourly wages in the lowest decile, the bottom tenth of the pay distribution, was less than two percent in the long-term ...
The 1990s and 2000s were a gloomy period for Germany’s working class, hit by mass unemployment, welfare retrenchment and wage stagnation. We examine whether the growing economic disparity between the top and the bottom of Germany’s class structure was accompanied by a widening class gap in life satisfaction. We analyse whether there is a social class gradient in life satisfaction and whether, over ...
Berechnungen auf Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) zeigen, dass sich nach der Einführung des Mindestlohns im Januar 2015 das Lohnwachstum der anspruchsberechtigten Beschäftigten mit niedrigen Löhnen deutlich beschleunigt hat: So lag das nominale Wachstum bei den vertraglichen Stundenlöhnen im unteren Dezil, das heißt im untersten Zehntel der Lohnverteilung, vor der Reform bei weniger als ...
The present dissertation comprises three chapters on the direct and indirect effects of social policies on labor supply decisions of two exemplary groups of individuals with particularly low employment rates: mothers with young children and workers approaching the retirement age. The first chapter of my dissertation explores whether the abolishment of an early retirement program for women effectively ...
In spring 2013, youth unemployment in the EU peaked and then declined sharply. Yet at least one in every six members of the economically active population between age 15 and 24 in the EU is still unemployed, and the unemployment rate among young persons is still 2.5 times higher than that of adults. The present study shows how young people’s situation in the labor market has developed since 2013. The ...
