External refereed essays

Asset Demand in the Financial AIDS Portfolio Model: Evidence from a Major Tax Reform

In this article, new evidence from the financial Almost Ideal Demand Sysytem (AIDS) portfolio model is featured, making use of additional exogenous rate-of-return variation, which has been mostly disregarded in the relevant literature so far. A Two-Stage Budgeting Model (2SBM) of asset demand is constructed and applied to German survey data for a time frame where first implementations of a major income ...

Intangibles, Can They Explain the Dispersion in Return Rates?

It is proven that the observed return rates on capital have an upward bias if firms are producing with unobserved intangible capital. Using a comprehensive firm level database for Germany, this theoretical preposition is supported empirically. Furthermore, by making unobserved intangible capital observable, dispersion in return rates is dramatically reduced. The results support the assumption that ...

Financial Inclusion and Financial Integrity: Aligned Incentives?

The Financial Action Task Force embraces financial inclusion as complementary to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, as it enhances transparency. This support is based on the premise that the increased use of formal financial services leads to a reduction of usage of informal services. We present evidence on eight African countries that both are not negatively associated. Moreover, ...

The Course of Subjective Sleep Quality in Middle and Old Adulthood and Its Relation to Physical Health

Objectives. Older adults more often complain about sleep disturbances compared with younger adults. However, it is not clear whether there is still a decline of sleep quality after age 60 and whether changes in sleep quality in old age are mere reflections of impaired physical health or whether they represent a normative age-dependent development. - Method. Subjective sleep quality and perceived physical ...

Biografische Drift und zweite Chance: Bildungs- und Berufsverläufe von Migrantennachkommen in Deutschland und Frankreich

Statistical Matching of Administrative and Survey Data: An Application to Wealth Inequality Analysis

Using population representative survey data fromthe German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and administrative pension records from the Statutory Pension Insurance, the authors compare four statisticalmatching techniques to complement survey information on net worth with social security wealth (SSW) information from the administrative records. The unique properties of the linked. - data allow for a straight ...

East Germany: Rising Incomes, Unchanged Inequality and the Impact of Redistributive Government 1990-92

Risk Aversion and Trade-Union Membership

If trade unions provide only their members with insurance against income variations, as a private good, this insurance will provide a stronger incentive for more risk-averse employees to become union members. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and various direct measures of individual risk attitudes, we find robust evidence of a positive relationship between risk aversion and the ...

Credit Reporting, Financial Intermediation and Identification Systems: International Evidence

Credit reporting systems are an important ingredient for financial markets. These systems are based upon the unique identification of borrowers, which is enabled if a compulsory national identification system exists in a country. We present evidence derived from difference-in-difference analyses on the impact of credit reporting and identification systems on financial intermediation in 172 countries ...

A New Approach for Assessing Sleep Duration and Postures from Ambulatory Accelerometry

Interest in the effects of sleeping behavior on health and performance is continuously increasing - both in research and with the general public. Ecologically valid investigations of this research topic necessitate the measurement of sleep within people's natural living contexts. We present evidence that a new approach for ambulatory accelerometry data offers a convenient, reliable, and valid measurement ...

Angst und Ärger: zur Relevanz emotionaler Dimensionen sozialer Ungleichheit

Soziologische Theorien postulieren seit langem Zusammenhänge zwischen sozialer Ungleichheit. - und dem Empfinden von Emotionen. Der Vielfalt theoretischer Arbeiten steht jedoch ein Mangel an empirischen Studien gegenüber, insbesondere mit Blick auf die präzise Erfassung von Emotionen. Aus diesem Grund prüfen wir empirisch die Zusammenhänge zwischen Indikatoren sozialer Ungleichheit und der Häufigkeit ...

Biological Pathways and Genetic Mechanisms Involved in Social Functioning

Purpose: To describe the major findings in the literature regarding associations between biological and genetic factors and social functioning, paying special attention to: (1) heritability studies on social functioning and related concepts; (2) hypothesized biological pathways and genetic variants that could be involved in social functioning, and (3) the implications of these results for quality-of-life ...

Bestimmt die wirtschaftliche Dynamik der Städte die Intensität der Einkommenspolarisierung? Resultate für deutsche Stadtregionen

Optimal Top Marginal Tax Rates under Income Splitting for Couples

This paper provides formulas for optimal top marginal tax rates when couples are taxed according to income splitting between spouses, consumption is taxed, and the skill distribution is unbounded. Optimal top marginal income tax rates are computed for Germany using a dataset that includes the tax returns of all German top taxpayers. We find that the optimal top marginal tax rate converges to about ...

The Parenthood Effect on Gender Inequality: Explaining the Change in Paid and Domestic Work when British Couples Become Parents

This study examines the importance of prenatal characteristics of men and women in couples for how they change their time spent on housework and paid work after thetransition to parenthood. We focus on both partners' earnings and gender role attitudes as explanatory factors. Previous research explored the importance of women's relative income and both partners' gender role attitudes for the extent ...

Gender Equality and Outsourcing of Domestic Work, Childbearing, and Relationship Stability among British Couples

This study investigates whether gender inequality in the division of housework and child care may be an obstacle to childbearing and relationship stability among different groups of British couples. Furthermore, it explores whether outsourcing of domestic labor ameliorates any negative effects of domestic work inequality. The empirical investigation uses event-history analysis based on 14 waves (1992-2005) ...

Maternal Employment and Gender Role Attitudes: Dissonance among British Men and Women in the Transition to Parenthood

This study examines how changes in gender role attitudes of couples after childbirth relate to women's paid work and the type of childcare used. Identifying attitude-practice dissonances matters because how they get resolved influences mothers' future employment. Previous research examined changes in women's attitudes and employment, or spouses' adaptations to each others' attitudes. This is extended ...

Bildungsungleichheiten und Privatschulen in Deutschland

The Determinants of Anti-trafficking Policies: Evidence from a New Index

We develop an index measuring the three main dimensions - prosecution, protection, and prevention - of the anti-trafficking policies of the governments of up to 180 countries over the 2000-2010 period. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world; compliance with prosecution policy is highest, while governmental efforts to protect victims of human trafficking remain weakest. ...

Integrating Equality: Globalization, Women's Rights, and Human Trafficking

This paper empirically investigates whether globalization can improve women's rights. Using panel data from 150 countries over the 1981-2008 period, I find that social globalization positively affects women's economic and social rights. When controlling for social globalization, however, economic globalization does not have any effect on women's rights. Despite the positive effect of (social) globalization ...