This article presents the new linked employee-employer study of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-LEE2), which offers new research opportunities for various academic fields. In particular, the study contains two waves of an employer survey for persons in dependent work that is also linkable to the SOEP, a large representative German annual household panel (SOEP-LEE2-Core). Moreover, SOEP-LEE2 includes ...
This study quantifies the distributional effects of the minimum wage introduced in Germany in 2015. Using detailed Socio-Economic Panel survey data, we assess changes in the hourly wages, working hours, and monthly wages of employees who were entitled to be paid the minimum wage. We employ a difference-in-differences analysis, exploiting regional variation in the “bite” of the minimum wage. At the ...
We examine how the gender of business-owners is related to the wages paid to female relative to male employees working in their firms. Using Finnish register data and employing firm fixed effects, we find that the gender pay gap is – starting from a gender pay gap of 11 to 12 percent – two to three percentage-points lower for hourly wages in female-owned firms than in male-owned firms. Results are ...
Theory suggests that corporate and sovereign bonds are fundamentally different, also because sovereign debt has no bankruptcy mechanism and is hard to enforce. We show empirically that the two assets are more similar than you think, at least when it comes to high-yield bonds over the past 20 years. Based on rich new data we compare risky US corporate bonds (“junk” bonds) to risky emerging market sovereign ...
Large parts of the existing natural gas distribution networks must be decommissioned due to the decarbonization of the heat supply. However, there are neither regulatory nor economic incentives for the gas network operators to do so and delaying the decommissioning could be expensive for the remaining customers. This Weekly Report analyzes to what extent municipalities can partially decommission the ...
The acquisitions of startups by Google, Amazon, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have steadily increased over the past years and have become more diversified. The current discussion about strategic motives for such acquisitions is vivid – especially in light of present concerns about the market power of gatekeepers, faster technological advances and digitalization. The principal question remains whether...
This paper examines the impact of RMB internationalization reforms on invoicing currency choices of firms exporting to China. Using detailed French customs data spanning 2011-2017, it documents three novel stylized facts on RMB adoption and suggests a novel mechanism that drives the self-selection of firms into RMB invoicing. Additionally, it provides causal estimates of the impact of RMB use on...