Based on a large employer-employee matched data set, the paper investigates the effects of variable enforcement of German dismissal protection legislation on the employment dynamics in small establishments. Specifically, using a difference-in-differences approach, we study the effect of changes...

Even though European labor markets are characterized by high average unemployment, there is a shortage of high-skilled labor, leading many European economists to argue for an immigration policy directed at actively recruiting highly qualified workers from abroad. It has further been argued that...

Using data for the 1990 ?s,this paper examines the role of sheepskin effects in the returns to education for Japan.Our estimation results indicate that sheepskin effects explain about 50%of the total returns to schooling.We further find that sheepskin effect are only important for workers in...

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the demand for high-skilled workers using a new firm data set, the IZA International Employer Survey 2000. Our results suggest that while workers from EU-countries are mainly complements to domestic high-skilled workers, workers from non-EU countries...

The paper examines real and nominal wage rigidities.We estimate a switching regime model, in which the observed distribution of individual wage changes, computed from West German register data for 1976-1997, is generated by simultaneous processes of real, nominal or no wage rigidity, and...

In this paper, a decomposition method for Tobit-models is derived, which allows the differences in a censored outcome variable between two groups to be decomposed into a part that is explained by differences in observed characteristics and a part attributable to differences in the estimated...

In this paper, a general Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition is derived that can also be applied to non-linear models, which allows the differences in a non-linear outcome variable between two groups to be decomposed into a part that is explained by differences in observed characteristics and a part...

This paper examines the relative savings position of migrant households in West Germany, paying particular attention to differences between temporary and permanent migrants.Our findings reveal significant differences in the savings rates between foreign-born and German-born individuals. These...

This paper examines the effect of copayments on doctor visits using the German health care reform of 2004 as a natural experiment. In January 2004, copayments of 10 euros for the first doctor visit in each quarter have been introduced for all adults in the statutory health insurance. Individuals...

This paper investigates gender differences in smoking behavior using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP). We develop a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method for count data models which allows to isolate the part of the gender differential in the number of cigarettes daily smoked that...