Topic Education

He's a Chip Off the Old Block: The Persistency of Occupational Choices among Generations

The purpose of this paper is to assess if parents exert an influence on the occupation choices of their children. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we find a high persistency of occupational decisions across fathers and children using nested and conditional logit models. To separate effects related to genetic factors (nature) and parental education or role models (nurture), we ...

Sharp Drop in Youth Unemployment in Germany but Regional Differences Remain

Youth unemployment in Germany has fallen to its lowest level since reunification. Between 2005 and 2012, unemployment among under 25 year olds has more than halved. By international standards, Germany is in an exceptionally strong position. Nowhere in Europe is youth unemployment lower. However, this is not so much due to structural improvements or positive labor market growth than to demographic change: ...

Lack of Training for Young People Continues to be a Cause for Concern: Seven Questions to Karl Brenke

Education, Health Risks, and Economic Outcomes: Essays Based on Micro Data ; Dissertation

This thesis comprises four chapters and investigates the relationship between individuals' education, health risks, and economic outcomes in Germany. The main contributions to the economic literature are twofold: i) Robust evidence for the causal effect of education on health risks is provided and ii) the implications of health risks for individuals' economic outcomes are quantified from a life-cycle ...

The Returns to Education for Opportunity Entrepreneurs, Necessity Entrepreneurs, and Paid Employees

We assess the relevance of formal education on the productivity of the self-employed, distinguishing between opportunity entrepreneurs, who voluntarily pursue a business opportunity, and necessity entrepreneurs, who lack alternative employment options. We expect differences in the returns to education between these groups due to different levels of control over the use of their human capital. The analysis ...

Post-Socialist Transition and the Intergenerational Transmission of Education in Kyrgyzstan

We investigate long-term trends in the intergenerational transmission of education in a low income country undergoing a transition from socialism to a market economy. We draw on evidence from Kyrgyzstan using data from three household surveys collected in 1993, 1998 and 2011. We find that Kyrgyzstan, like Eastern European middle income transition economies, generally maintained high educational mobility, ...

Low Level of Equal Opportunities in Germany: Family Background Shapes Individual Economic Success

For many years, securing equal life opportunities has been a normative goal shared by all democratic societies in the western world. Although, in principle, all citizens enjoy the same rights, in reality, individual life opportunities still vary according to family background which, in turn, shapes the prevailing pattern of social inequality. This is not a specifically German phenomenon. Based on a ...

Trick or Treat? Maternal Involuntary Job Loss and Children's Non-cognitive Skills

Negative effects of job loss on adults such as considerable fall in income have long been examined. If job loss has negative consequences for adults, it may spread to their children. But potential effects on children's non-cognitive skills and the related mechanisms have been less examined. This paper uses propensity score matching to analyze maternal involuntary job loss and its potential causal effect ...

Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skill Formation and Labor Market Outcomes: Habilitationsschrift

Early Childhood Education Activities and Care Arrangements of Disadvantaged Children in Germany

We examine how children aged zero to 6 years with migration background and those who live with lone parents, or on low income or social assistance differ from other less disadvantaged groups in their use of formal ECEC services and non-formal education activities. Previous studies have shown that attendance rates are lower for children in some of these groups, who might benefit disproportionately from ...