Germany is known to have one of the lowest fertility rates among Western European countries and also relatively low employment rates of mothers with young children. Although these trends have been observed during the last decades, the German public has only recently begun discussing these...

We analyze the role of distance to the nearest university in the demand for higher education in Germany. Distance could matter due to transaction costs or due to neighbourhood effects. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) combined with a database on university postal codes to...

Germany is known to have one of the lowest fertility rates among Western European countries and also relatively low employment rates of mothers with young children. Although these trends have been observed during the last decades, the German public has only recently begun discussing these...

More and more children in Germany attend formal day care. How does family policy influence this attendance? Which effect do particular family policies have and in how far do these effects differ among different family types? This question is dealt with in the first part of this contribution. It...

Commissioned by the Federal Government, the "Overall Evaluation of Benefit Payments to Married Couples and Families" is the first study to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the key instruments of German family policy. The evaluation focused on the following family-policy goals:...

From August 2013, every child in Germany who has reached his or her first birthday will have a legal right to a place in a childcare facility or family day care. What effects does this have on the mothers' economic activity and child development? Our findings show that the legal entitlement to...