Abstract: A substantial number of studies establish a significant empirical connection between occupational choice and (non-cognitive) personality traits. Yet, there are no formal behavioral models integrating non-cognitive traits into the decision process of entrepreneurs that are capable to explain entry and survival simultaneously. This paper attempts to close this gap. With the combined...
Employment rates of mothers with young children have increased in the past years. Similar developments can be found for the use of childcare facilities and household-related services. This paper discusses the relationship between these variables with special focus on their dynamic dependencies over time. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel, the effects of the use household services and...
The construction industry remains a key pillar of the German economy. According to the latest construction volume calculations by DIW Berlin, the value of construction in the current and coming year is forecast to grow far more rapidly than the economy as a whole: by a price-adjusted 3.3 percent in 2014 and 2.1 percent in 2015. Currently, new residential construction is an important engine for growth ...
Germany's energy transition envisages a shift toward energy being supplied primarily from renewable sources. The expansion of renewables is largely determined by central government policy but the German Länder also play a major role and could consequently make a significant contribution toward a successful energy transition. DIW Berlin recently conducted its fourth renewable energy ranking of ...
In 1988 Basil Moore published his book Horizontalists and Verticalists: The Macroeconomics of Credit Money, which this year celebrates its 25th birthday. We discuss this book from today's perspective, and in particular whether Moore's main assertions have been validated or rejected by the development of central bank practice and academic monetary economics. We find that the book has impressively stood ...
The thoughts that an individual has about the future contribute substantially to their life satisfaction in a positive or negative direction. This is a result found via five different methods, some of which control for personality and disposition and the potential endogeneity of thoughts and life satisfaction. The reduction in life satisfaction experienced by individuals who report being pessimistic ...
This paper focuses on the role of home country’s fertility culture in shaping immigrants’ fertility. I use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to study completed fertility of first-generation immigrants who arrived from different countries and in different years. The variation in total fertility rates (TFRs) across countries and over time serves as a proxy for cultural changes. By using a linear ...
Income inequality is usually considered in terms of its current development. A long-term perspective allows us to compare the income situation of today’s generation with that of their parents. For the first time ever, we have measured the inequality of wages and salaries earned over an entire working lifetime using a new kind of dataset. The findings show that the inequality of lifetime social ...
Prof. Dr. Steven A. Gabriel, Research Fellow at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander Humboldt Foundation in late 2014. Prof. Gabriel is Full Professor for Operations Research at the University of Maryland (USA) and has been a Research Professor at DIW Berlin since 2008. He is a well-known expert in the field of ...
