There is an enduring belief by UK policymakers that a large higher education sector is an important driver of long-run economic growth, which has been part of the narrative since the Robbins Report. Back then, there was plenty of conjecture and assumption, but strikingly little concrete evidence...

Diamond and Koszegi [Diamond, P. and Koszegi, B. (2003), "Quasi-Hyperbolic Preferences and Retirement," Journal of Public Economics, 87: 1839-1972] have argued that quasi-hyperbolic discounting can cause dynamic inconsistency in planning when to retire as well as in consumption plans. This...

The behavioral economics literature on time discounting has suggested that individuals may systematically undersave when planning for retirement. Hence, pension systems have developed to enable, or indeed force, individuals to save more for retirement. Of course, the saving aspect and the timing...

Germany is widely known for its high-quality vocational education and training (VET) system. The two key features of that system are (a) firm-based training programs accompanied by a schoolbased component (of one to two days per week), in which apprentices acquire upper secondary general...

The aim of this article is to critically assess the concept of transitional labour markets (TLM) and its scientific importance. It seeks to provide a stock-taking of the methodological tools and discuss future theoretical and methodological perspectives. Since the TLM concept is by definition...

Die Untersuchung sozialer Ungleichheiten gehört zum Hauptgeschäft der Soziologie. Viele Ursache-Wirkungs-Mechanismen für Ungleichheitsphänomene sind gut erforscht, zumeist existieren alternative oder komplementäre Erklärungen für vorhandene Ungleichheiten. Aus dem Wissen, wie...

Sequences are ordered lists of elements. A typical example is the sequence of bases in DNA. Other examples are sequences of employment stages during a lifetime or individual party preferences over time. Sequence analysis include techniques to handle, describe, and, most importantly, compare...

We describe a general strategy to analyze sequence data and introduce SQ-Ados, a bundle of Stata programs implementing the proposed strategy. The programs include several tools for describing and visualizing sequences as well as a Mata library to perform optimal matching using the Needleman –...

In the paper I examine sequences of school-to-work transitions in ten European countries by using explorative methods of optimal matching and cluster analysis. The process of labour market entry is observed for the five years following departure from school by examining monthly labour market...