Vorträge des DIW Berlin

Forecasting the Fragility of the Banking and Insurance Sector

Linkages between banks and insurance companies are important when forecasting the fragility of the banking and insurance sectors. We propose a novel empirical framework that allows us to estimate unobserved linkages in panel data sets that contains observed regressors. We find that taking unobserved common factors into account reduces the root mean square forecasts error of firm specific forecasts...

Quantifying Opportunities for Congestion Management

Rwanda: The Impact of Conflict on Fertility

Impact of Industrialization on Relative Female Survival: Evidence from Trade Policies

Previous attempts at understanding the role of industrialization on son preference are confounded by the endogeneity of the industrialization process. This paper exploits an exogenous shift in the trade policy in India to study the impact of industrialization on son preference. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, I find that households are more likely to have a male child in regions with...

Reservation Wages of First and Second Generation Migrants

This paper analyzes the reservation wages of first and second generation migrants in Germany. Based on recently collected and rich survey data of a representative sample of entrants into unemployment, we empirically test and confirm the hypothesis that reservation wages increase from first to second generation migrants, other things equal. If the wage offer distribution is unknown, the reservation...

20 Years of German Unification: Evidence on Income Convergence and Heterogeneity

We analyse the convergence and heterogeneity of living standards between East and West Germany since unification. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we compare total individual income of permanent adult residents, including retirees and the unemployed, of East and West Germany over the fifteen years for which data are available. Using a fixed effects vector decomposition...

One Last Puff? Public Smoking Bans and Smoking Behavior

This paper investigates the short-term effects of public smoking bans on individual smoking behavior. In 2007 and 2008, state-level smoking bans were gradually introduced in all of Germany's sixteen federal states. We exploit this variation in the timing of state bans to identify the effect that smoke-free policies had on individuals' smoking propensity and smoking intensity. Using rich...

The Effects of Expanding the Generosity of the Statutory Sickness Insurance System

In 1999, in Germany, the statutory sick pay level was increased from 80 to 100 percent of foregone earnings for sickness episodes of up to six weeks. We show that this reform has led to an increase in average absence days of about 10 percent or one additional day per employee, per year. The estimates are based on SOEP survey data and parametric, nonparametric, and combined matching-regression...

Sector Specialization and Productivity Growth: Implications for Industrial Policy in Germany

Wie groß ist die Armut in Deutschland? Eine Auseinandersetzung mit den vorliegenden empirischen Messverfahren

Carbon Pricing for Low Carbon Investment

Violent Development in the Social Sciences

Economic Transition, Household Behavior and Well-Being in Kyrgyzstan

A Welfare Analysis of Secondary Use of Personal Data

High Frequency Trading - Spekulieren im Sekundentakt

Schulden, Steuern, Staatsfinanzen: wie der Staat seine Finanzen in Ordnung bringen kann und was wir davon haben

Diagnose Berlin: zwischen industriellem Aderlass und neuem Wachstum

Klimaschutz: jetzt erst recht!

Innovationsindikator: Wie innovativ ist Deutschland?

Forschen am sozialen Leben: die Längsschnittstudie Sozio-oekonomisches Panel (SOEP)