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DIW Discussion Papers 665 / 2007
This paper examines whether schooling has a positive impact on individual's political interest, voting turnout, democratic values, political involvement and political group membership, using the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS). Between 1949 and 1969 the number of compulsory years of schooling was increased from eight to nine years in the Federal Republic of Germany, gradually over time and across ...
2007| Thomas Siedler
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DIW Discussion Papers 664 / 2007
In this paper, we make multi-step forecasts of the annual growth rates of the real GDP for each of the 16 German Länder (states) simultaneously. Beside the usual panel data models, such as pooled and fixed-effects models, we apply panel models that explicitly account for spatial dependence between regional GDP. We find that both pooling and accounting for spatial effects helps substantially improve ...
2007| Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Boriss Siliverstovs, Stefan Kooths
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DIW Discussion Papers 663 / 2007
We propose a generalized estimating equations approach to the analysis of the mean and the covariance structure of a bivariate time series process of panel data with mixed continuous and discrete dependent variables. The approach is used to jointly analyze wage dynamics and the incidence of profit-sharing in West Germany. Our findings reveal a significantly positive conditional correlation of wages ...
2007| Markus Pannenberg, Martin Spieß
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DIW Discussion Papers 662 / 2007
We develop a structural multi-factor labour demand model which distinguishes between eight labour categories including non-standard types of employment such as marginal employment. The model is estimated for both the number of workers and total working hours using a new panel data set. For unskilled and skilled workers in full-time employment, we find labour demand elasticities similar to previous ...
2007| Ronny Freier, Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 661 / 2007
This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way out of (long-term) unemployment. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into self-employment and previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis of pseudo-panel data for Germany in the period 1996-2002. The estimation method accounts for cohort fixed effects and measurement errors induced by the pseudo ...
2007| Daniela Glocker, Viktor Steiner
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DIW Discussion Papers 660 / 2007
We analyse how money as a store of value affects the decisions of a representative household under diversifiable and non-diversifiable risks given that the central bank successfully stabilizes the rate of inflation at a low level. Assuming exponential utility allows us to derive an explicit relationship between optimal money holdings, the household's desire to tilt, smooth and stabilize consumption ...
2007| Ingrid Größl, Ulrich Fritsche
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DIW Discussion Papers 659 / 2007
Matching has become a popular approach to estimate average treatment effects. It is based on the conditional independence or unconfoundedness assumption. Checking the sensitivity of the estimated results with respect to deviations from this identifying assumption has become an increasingly important topic in the applied evaluation literature. If there are unobserved variables which affect assignment ...
2007| Sascha O. Becker, Marco Caliendo
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DIW Discussion Papers 658 / 2006
The paper investigates the role of social norms as a determinant of individual attitudes by analyzing risk proclivity reported by immigrants and natives in a unique representative German survey. We employ factor analysis to construct measures of immigrants' ethnic persistence and assimilation. The estimated effect of these measures on risk proclivity suggests that adaptation to the attitudes of the ...
2006| Holger Bonin, Amelie Constant, Konstantinos Tatsiramos, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 657 / 2006
This paper uses the concept of ethnic self-identification of immigrants in a twodimensional framework. It acknowledges the fact that attachments to the home and the host country are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are three possible paths of adjustment from separation at entry, namely the transitions to assimilation, integration and marginalization. We analyze the determinants of ethnic selfidentification ...
2006| Laura Zimmermann, Klaus F. Zimmermann, Amelie Constant
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DIW Discussion Papers 656 / 2006
The Orange Revolution unveiled significant political and economic tensions between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine. Whether this divide was caused by purely ethnic differences or by ethnically segregated reform preferences is unknown. Analysis using unique micro data collected prior to the revolution finds that voting preferences for the forces of the forthcoming Orange Revolution were strongly ...
2006| Amelie Constant, Martin Kahanec, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 655 / 2006
We contribute to the literature on the relationship between cognitive abilities and labour market outcomes providing first evidence for Germany. In particular, cross-sectional data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) are used, which include two measures of cognitive ability, one test of fluid mechanics (speed test) and another test of crystallised pragmatics (word fluency test). We find a positive ...
2006| Silke Anger, Guido Heineck
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DIW Discussion Papers 654 / 2006
Empirical studies on the earnings effects of tobacco use have found significant wage penalties attached to smoking. We produce evidence that suggests that these estimates are significantly upward biased. The bias arises from a general failure in the literature to control for the past smoking behavior of individuals. 2SLS earnings estimates show that the smoking wage penalty is reduced by as much as ...
2006| Silke Anger, Michael Kvasnicka
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DIW Discussion Papers 653 / 2006
This paper examines the effects of political determinants on the allocation of public expenditures. Analyzing an OECD panel from 1990 to 2004, a SURE model controls for the contemporaneous correlation between the different expenditure categories (COFOG). I find that left governments set other priorities than right governments: In particular, they increase spending for "Environment protection", "Recreation; ...
2006| Niklas Potrafke
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DIW Discussion Papers 652 / 2006
I test if parties matter with respect to the allocation of public expenditures in Germany. Considering the allocation of rights and duties due to the federal structure, two econometric models are estimated. First, a SURE model analyses spending at the federal level for the period from 1950 to 2003 and finds evidence for partisan politics and election year effects. Second, I examine the spending behaviour ...
2006| Niklas Potrafke
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DIW Discussion Papers 651 / 2006
In this paper we apply standard cartel theory to identify the major institutional stabilizers of Germany's area tariff system of collective bargaining between a single industry union and the industry's employers association. Our cartel analysis allows us to demonstrate that recent labor policy reforms that intend to make labor markets more "flexible" further serve to stabilize the labor cartel while ...
2006| Justus Haucap, Uwe Pauly, Christian Wey
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DIW Discussion Papers 650 / 2006
In Germany, processes can be observed that have long been out of keeping with the principle of equality of opportunity. Unemployment is concentrated in the structurally weak peripheral areas, in Eastern Germany in particular; emigration of young and better-educated people to the West is not diminishing, but contrary to expectation is again on the increase; aging pro-cesses have set in already, and ...
2006| Annette Spellerberg, Denis Huschka, Roland Habich
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DIW Discussion Papers 649 / 2006
In this paper we analyze the impact of the economic reforms implemented in 1980s and of the Custom Union Agreement of 1996 on the intra-industry trade in Turkey. Using the panel data for 15 trading partners of Turkey and the sample period 1970-2005, we record the positive impact of both reforms with the former reforms exercising stronger influence on the intra-industry trade measured either by the ...
2006| Sule Akkoyunlu, Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Boriss Siliverstovs
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DIW Discussion Papers 648 / 2006
This study analyzes the mobility between three labor market states: working in low paid jobs, working in higher paid jobs and not working. Using German panel data I estimate dynamic multinomial logit panel data models with random effects taking the initial conditions problem and potential endogeneity of panel attrition into account. In line with results from other countries, this first study on Germany ...
2006| Arne Uhlendorff
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DIW Discussion Papers 647 / 2006
I construct a new dataset with financial and housing wealth in 16 countries and investigate the effect of wealth on consumption. The baseline estimation method based on the sluggishness of consumption growth implies that the long-run marginal propensity to consume out of total wealth averaged across countries is 5 cents. I find substantial heterogeneity in the wealth effects: the individual country ...
2006| Jiri Slacalek
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DIW Discussion Papers 646 / 2006
Using merged data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper applies a parametric difference-in-differences approach to assess the real effects of the introduction of the Euro on subjective well-being. A complementary nonparametric approach is also used to analyze the impact of difficulties with the new currency on well-being. The results indicate ...
2006| Christoph Wunder, Johannes Schwarze, Gerhard Krug, Bodo Herzog