This paper tests for state dependence in histories of unemployment and job mobility from the first six waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Transitions between states of employment and unemployment are modelled as outcomes of binomial probit processes which are first and higher order Markov. The use of simulation estimation allows quite general intertemporal covariance structures in order ...
In Germany, students are streamed at age ten into an academic or non-academic track. We demonstrate that the randomly allocated disadvantage of being born just before as opposed to just after the cutoff date for school entry leads to substantially different schooling experiences. Relatively young students are initially only two-thirds as likely to be assigned to the academic track. The possibility ...