Abstract: I assess the effects of changes in financial incentives on fertility arising from a reform in parental leave benefits in Germany. Up until 2007 German parental benefits were means-tested transfers and targeted at lower income families. From 2007 onwards parental leave benefits were increasing in mother’s pre-birth earnings with a minimum benefit being granted to all mothers.
We investigate the top tail of the German wealth distribution using the first wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). Assuming that wealth follows a Pareto distribution above a minimum level, we correct for the "missing rich" by imputing wealth above three million Euro. Then, we investigate the German wealth distribution considering the impact of the imputation. To test the...
In Germany, individuals in need of long-term care receive support through benefits of the long-term care insurance. A central goal of the insurance is to support informal care provided by family members. Care recipients can choose between benefits in kind (formal home care services) and benefits in cash. From a budgetary perspective family care is a cost-saving alternative to formal home care and to ...
Entrepreneurs, creators of new firms, benefit economies in several ways through innovative activities, new job creation, increased productivity and competition, or because they accelerate structural change. Without new entrepreneurs and the businesses they create, economies may stagnate. Therefore, new business formation by entrepreneurs is regarded as one source of innovation and economic growth. ...
Applying a financial assets approach, we analyze the returns and earnings risk of investments into different types of human capital. Even though the returns from investing in human capital are extensively studied, little is known about the properties of the returns to different types of human capital within a given educational path. Using information from the German Micro Census, we estimate the risk ...
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 ...
