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Adult Education and Political Participation: Evidence from East German Volkshochschulen

This paper examines the effects of voluntary, non-formal adult education on political attitudes, participation, and partisanship, exploiting the expansion of courses at East German Volkshochschulen (VHS) after reunification. Combining administrative VHS data with individual survey data and federal election results, we use quasi-random variation in local course availability to identify causal effects ...

Industrial Relations and Working from Home in Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic

We investigate the role of industrial relations for working from home during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 2020 to 2023 and a special COVID sample (SOEP-CoV) for 2020 and 2021, we examine how collective bargaining and plant-level co-determination are associated with the incidence and frequency of working from home. Controlling ...

Resilience of R&D of Multinational Companies: Insights of Two Crises

This study investigates the R&D behavior of the world’s top R&D investors during the Great Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. Focusing on the resilience of corporate R&D activities, we explore two dimensions: stability and adaptability. Using two large datasets on the world’s leading R&D-investing companies covering the periods 2004–2010 and 2015–2021, thus including both crises, our analysis ...

Unequal Returns: Gendered and Origin-Based Disparities in Initial Refugee Employment Trajectories in Germany

This article examines origin- and gender-based disparities in labourmarket integration of refugees in Germany, comparing Ukrainian refugees with refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using longitudinal data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Survey and the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP Ukrainian Refugee Survey, we trace labour-force participation (LFP) and employment rates during the first three ...

An Underestimated Policy Lever: The ECB’s Collateral Policy Supports Financial Markets and Reduces Uncertainty

A central bank’s collateral policy determines which assets banks may use as collateral for refinancing operations. Thus, it is a critical tool for providing the banking system with liquidity while simultaneously stabilizing it. Using a high-frequency identification approach, this study examines how the European Central Bank’s collateral policy influences banks, financial markets, and government bond ...

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An Economic Approach to Survey-Based Measurement of Well-Being

How should economists measure people’s well-being? A comprehensive measure of well-being is essential for accurately estimating the effects of a policy or intervention, tracking social progress, and assessing inequality. Traditional measures, such as compensating variation in microeconomics and Gross Domestic Progress in macroeconomics, largely restrict attention to market goods. These measures...

Quantifying the Knobe Effect: Population-level Patterns and Heterogeneity Analyses

An influential survey by Joshua Knobe (2003) indicates that the cognitive process ascribing intentionality to an agent is mediated by the perceived moral worth of the action. To assess the external validity of the finding and to obtain more precise estimates of effect sizes, the present study replicates this canonical experiment with a large scale random sample of the German population (N = 2,295). ...

Comparing Panel Retention among Ukrainian and Other Refugees in a German Probability-Based Panel: Evidence from a Decomposition Analysis

Despite the rise in global refugee migration, probability panels surveying refugees remain rare. The German IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, conducted annually since 2016, provides valuable panel data for research. In 2023, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sample of Ukrainian refugees was added, along with a refreshment sample of refugees from other countries. This paper examines household-, ...

Diffusion of Cumulative Advantage? How Wealth and Health Trajectories Co-Evolve Across the Life Course among Older Adults

Objectives Cumulative advantage is a central concept in life course research. Prior research has primarily focused on one outcome domain, overlooking the possibility that cumulative advantage could extend into other domains–what we refer to as diffusion of cumulative advantage. We build on and extend cumulative inequality theory to conceptualize diffusion and apply it to wealth and health, two domains ...