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Modeling with the Unobserved / Unobservable: An In-depth Analysis of Modeling Issues Concerning the Role of Attitudes and Perceptions in the Decision Making Process ; Dissertation

Hybrid choice models with latent variables aim to capture unobserved attributes of the individuals and the alternatives, such as attitudes, perceptions, etc., increasing the predictive capability and realism of discrete choice models. Even though, their fundaments are fairly well-established, some technical and theoretical issues have not been extensively analyzed, leading to controversies in the literature. ...

Increased Instruction Hours and the Widening Gap in Student Performance

Do increased instruction hours improve the performance of all students? Using PISA scores of students in ninth grade, we analyse the effect of a German education reform that increased weekly instruction hours by two hours (6.5 percent) overalmost five years. In the additional time, students are taught new learning content. On average, the reform improves student performance. However, treatment effects ...

Official Data on German Water Supply: 2004, 2007, 2010

Work Hour Mismatch and Job Mobility: Adjustment Channels and Resolution Rates

This paper analyses the role of job changes in overcoming work hour constraints and the work hour mismatches resulting from these constraints (i.e., differences between actual and desired work hours). Building on previous findings that job change increases the flexibility of actual work hours, the study addresses two as yet neglected questions in the context: (i) How do changes in desired work hours, ...

Factors Influencing Female Labor Force Participation in Egypt and Germany: A Comparative Study

This paper aims to identify the major factors influencing female labor force participation (FLFP) in Egypt and Germany. On a narrow scope and given the unclear relationship between educational attainment and Egyptian FLFP, this paper seeksto examine the effect of educational attainment on the Egyptian FLFP while considering other personal and household factors. On a broader scope, the literature on ...

How Does Maternal Pension Wealth Affect Family Old-Age Savings in Germany?

This paper examines how families adjust their private old-age savings in response to a change in individual pension wealth. The regression discontinuity approach exploits two expansions of the child care pension benefit, in 1992 and in 1999, as natural experiments. The empirical analysis is based on three waves of the Survey of Income and Expenditure (EVS): 1998, 2003 and 2008. All results indicate ...

German Economy Back on Track, Despite Weak Global Economy

The global economy is stalling. Global production increased by only 3.3 percent last year—the lowest growth rate since the financial crisis—and is expected to rise by only 3.3 percent in 2016 as well, which is lower than originally predicted. The reason for the sluggish growth lies primarily in the changes taking place in the emerging countries: the Chinese economy continues to lose momentum, and low ...

Private Consumption Will Remain a Powerful Growth Driver: Eight Questions to Simon Junker

Monetary Policy and Defaults in the US

This paper uses a structural VAR model to study the effect of monetary policy on the delinquency rate of business loans and consumer credit. The VAR is identified using at the same time several external instruments, which cover different approaches from the literature. Delinquency rates, defined as the rate of loans whose repayment is overdue for more than a month relative to total loans, are found ...

German economy back on track, despite some rough waters

DIW Berlin’s forecast: GDP to rise by 1.6 percent in 2016 – robust labor market, wage increases, and refugee expenditure fueling consumption – investment and global economy inhibiting growth According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the German economy is expected to grow by 1.6 percent this year, despite a gloomy global economy. This prognosis is similar ...