External refereed essays

Influence of Paternal Age on the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion

The frequency of chromosomal anomalies in spermatozoa appears to increase with male age. Because these anomalies play a role in the etiology of spontaneous abortion, an influence of paternal age on risk of spontaneous abortion is plausible but not established. The aim was to characterize this influence in a prospective study among 5,121 California women, who as members of a prepaid health plan were ...

Banking Crises, Regulation, and Growth: The Case of Russia

Recent empirical analyses of the relationship between financial system development and economic growth find that financial system development causes economic growth, is a good predictor of growth and that its impact is relatively large. Moreover, the empirical literature predicts that the adverse effects of banking crises on economic growth will rise in the absence of an adequate response by the government. ...

An Econometric Analysis of Motorway Renewal Costs in Germany

The analysis of motorway renewal costs presented in this paper was driven by two research questions: First, to analyse the economic process of motorway renewal work and to identify whether there exist economies of scale; and second to identify the influence of traffic volume on renewal costs and to derive an estimate of marginal infrastructure costs as part of optimal road user charges. The analysis ...

Item Nonresponse on Income Questions in Panel Surveys: Incidence, Imputation and the Impact on Inequality and Mobility

On the Effect of Item Nonresponse on the Estimation of a Two-Panel-Waves Wage Equation

Characteristics and Impact of Faked Interviews in Surveys: An Analysis of Genuine Fakes in the Raw Data of SOEP

Transporting Russian Gas to Western Europe: A Simulation Analysis

Cost Structure Surveys for Germany

Implementing the Kyoto Protocol without Russia

This paper examines implementation of the Kyoto Protocol without Russia. It concludes that implementation without Russia is possible, although it requires political will on the part of the countries that wish to proceed with the Protocol. It would lead to higher compliance costs for Annex B buyer regions, but other regions, except Russia, would benefit financially. Russia would forego revenue of at ...

Improving the Institutional Structures for Disseminating Energy Efficiency in Emerging Nations: A Case Study for Energy Agencies in South Africa

Emerging nations are typically characterised by highenergy intensities despite significant energy efficiency potentials and numerous project oriented efforts to introduce energy-efficient technologies. The paper argues that successful technology dissemination needs appropriate institutional structures to reduce the related transaction cost. While a project-by-project approach risks to evaporate after ...

What Is behind the Real Appreciation of the Accession Countries' Currencies? An Investigation of the PPI Based Real Exchange Rate

In the paper, we calculate real equilibrium exchange rates (EER) for EU accession countries and compare these with the actual exchange rate movements since the mid-1990s. The real equilibrium exchange rates are derived from models of macroeconomic balance and tested for econometrically. It is found that productivity increases can be regarded as one source of the observed PPI-based real appreciation ...

Income Mobility in Old Age in Britain and Germany

The increases in human longevity and early retirement in recent decades have posed new challenges for policy makers, and require a comprehensive understanding of the processes that influence the economic resources of older people. This paper examines the income mobility experienced by older people living in Britain and Germany during the 1990s, and identifies the influential personal attributes and ...

Nachhilfe als Strategie zur Verwirklichung von Bildungszielen: eine empirische Untersuchung der Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP)

Separate Spaces, Separate Outcomes? Neighbourhood Impacts on Minorities in Germany

In both the German and US literature on ethnic neighbourhoods, there is considerable debate as to whether living amongst co-ethnics hinders or furthers the integration process for immigrants. Using the detailed data on immigrant integration in the German Socio-economic Panel in combination with zip-code-level data on minority concentration and neighbourhood income levels, the research tests the extent ...

Transactions That Did Not Happen and Their Influence on Prices

This paper studies data from the wholesale fruit and vegetables market in Marseille. We have details of counteroffers to the prices that were proposed by the seller even when no transaction took place. We analyse the evolution of prices and the relation between the final price struck and the proposals of the two parties. Periods with no buyer refusals, of offers or bargaining with no transaction will ...

On-the-Job Search and the Wage Distribution

Strategic Use of Communication Technology: Diffusion Processes in Networks and Environments

Diffusion patterns of communication technology and the intensity of its use vary from enterprise to enterprise, from industry to industry and from country to country. This is partly due to differing potentials for strategic use. The paper identifies "strategic use" with the exploitation of the network character of the technology and thus contrasts it with "traditional use", where the integrative power ...

Konfliktuelle Integration? Die sozialen Konsequenzen der Lage der türkischen Bevölkerung in Deutschland und der nordafrikanischen Bevölkerung in Frankreich

Seit den 1980er Jahren gehören Konflikte mit einem ethnischen Hintergrund zur Alltagsrealität in Frankreich. In Deutschland fehlen dagegen weitgehend solche Konflikte. Ausgehend von Unterschieden im institutionellen Kontext der Integration von Zuwanderern in Deutschland und Frankreich untersucht der vorliegende Artikel die soziale Lage der türkischen Immigranten in Deutschland und der maghrebinischen ...

Wer erbt mehr? Erbschaften, Sozialstruktur und Alterssicherung

Welche Folgen haben Erbschaften für Sozialstruktur, Vermögensbildung und Alterssicherung? Wem kommen Erbschaften in besonderem Maße zugute? Die empirischen Analysen basieren auf Befragungsergebnissen des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels aus dem Jahre 2001. Sie liefern Informationen über Erblasser, Erbart, Erbzeit, Erbchance und Erbhöhe. Dabei werden die theoretischen Hypothesen generell bestätigt. Erbschaftsforschung ...

Explaining Income Nonresponse: A Case Study by Means of the British Household Panel Study (BHPS)

Many validation studies deal with item nonresponse and measurement error in earning data. In this paper, we explore motives of respondents for the failure to reveal earnings using the British Household Panel Study (BHPS). The BHPS collects socio-economic information of private households in Great Britain. We explain the evolution of income-nonresponse in the BHPS and demonstrate the importance of a ...