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SOEP User Survey now underway! Please participate by Dec. 20, 2013

We would like to ask you to complete a short questionnaire. By doing so, you will help us continue improving the SOEP data and our services to the international SOEP user community.If you did not receive a personal invitation, please register at https://fragebogen.diw.de/limesurvey2/index.php/659595/lang-en(This link will be active only up to Dec. 20,2013)The entire survey will take only 10 ...

Towards Optimal Regulation of Transmission Network Investment under Renewable Integration

We analyze regulatory regimes for electricity transmission investment in the context of transformation of the power system towards renewable energy. We study three distinctive developments of the generation mix with different implications on network congestion, which may be either of temporary or permanent nature. We address the relative performance of a combined merchant-regulatory price-cap mechanism, ...

Institutional Herding in Financial Markets: New Evidence through the Lens of a Simulated Model

Due to data limitations and the absence of testable, model-based predictions, theory and evidence on herd behavior are only loosely connected. This paper contributes towards closing this gap in the herding literature. We use numerical simulations of a herd model to derive new, theory-based predictions for aggregate herding intensity. Using high-frequency, investor-specific trading data we confirm the ...

From Boom to Bust? A Critical Look at US Shale Gas Projections

US shale gas production is generally expected to continue its fast rise. However, a cautious evaluation is needed. Shale gas resource estimates are potentially overoptimistic and it is uncertain to which extent they can be produced economically. Moreover, the adverse environmental effects of ever more wells to be drilled may lead to a fall in public acceptance and a strengthening of regulation. The ...

Does Euro Area Membership Affect the Relation between GDP Growth and Public Debt?

We analyse the relationship between the debt-to-GDP ratio and real per capita GDP growth for euro area members and a broader set of industrial countries by distinguishing periods of sustainable and non-sustainable debt. Thresholds for debt are theory-driven and depend on macroeconomic conditions. If the nominal interest rate exceeds nominal output growth, primary budget surpluses are required to achieve ...

Looking Back in Anger? Retirement and Unemployment Scarring

(joint with A. Knabe und R. Schöb)Unemployment leaves scars since it lowers workers' life satisfaction even when they are reemployed. Using German panel data, we test whether unemployment experience prior to retirement lowers well-being in retirement. Although retired people report the less life satisfaction the more unemployment they experienced, we cannot attribute this difference to...

Output and Labour Productivity in Service Industries: Problems of Measurement and International Comparison

Income Mobility

We survey the literature on income mobility, aiming to provide an integrated discussion of mobility within- and between-generations. We review mobility concepts, descriptive devices, measurement methods, data sources, and recent empirical evidence.

Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection, and the Criminal Activity of the "Children of the Wall"

We study the link between parental selection and children criminality in a new context. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. We exploit this natural experiment to estimate that the children from these (smaller) cohorts are 40 percent more likely to commit crimes. We show that women who gave birth at ...

Experimental Evidence of the Effect of Monetary Incentives on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Response: Experiences from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

The paper gives an overview of two experiments implemented in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) considering the effect of monetary incentives on cross-sectional and longitudinal response propensities. We conclude that the overall effects of monetary incentives on response rates are positive compared to the "classic" SOEP setting, where a charity lottery ticket is offered as an incentive. In the ...