This paper provides an empirical analysis of the structure of earnings in West Germany across skill groups and industries. Our analysis is based on data from the German Socioeconomic Panel for the period 1984 to-1994. We estimate quantile regressions, both for the entire sample period and for...

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the structure of earnings in West Germany across skill groups and industries. Our analysis is based on data from the German Socioeconomic Panel for the period 1984 to 1994. We estimate quantile regressions, both for the entire sample period and for...

In this paper, we review the German practice of imputing the costs of owner-occupied housing by increasing the relative weight of actual rents in the CPI. As the structure of owner-occupied housing differs substantially from that of rental housing, this variant of the imputation method may cause...

In several studies, hedonic methods have been used successfully for the ex post assessment of the accuracy of inflation measurement. Most of those studies relate to high-tech products, with respect to which traditional methods of compiling price indices often fail. We apply hedonic methods to...

In West Germany, social assistance expenditures increased by about 240% in the period 1980 to 1996 whereas total public expenditures increased by only about 80%. The paper examines the determinants as well as the financing of social assistance expenditures using a cross section of the West...

Based on a more realistic assumption, we modify the Taylor regression. The modified Taylor regression gives an explanation of why the (standard) Taylor regression is spurious (in the econometric sense, i.e. no stable relationship among the variables of interest) and, at the same time, a solution...

In this paper, we quantify the dynamics of absolute excess returns on stock markets depending on three factors: the average of the absolute excess return, the level of the stock price, and stock market volatility. We also argue that the absolute excess return can be regarded as an empirical...

In several studies, hedonic methods have been used successfully for the ex post assessment of the accuracy of inflation measurement. Most of those studies relate to high-tech products, with respect to which traditional methods of compiling price indices often fail. We apply hedonic methods to...

"Flexibility and heterogeneity are important topics in labour market research. Since 2004 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has funded a research network addressing the issue of 'Flexibility in Heterogeneous Labour Markets', which intends to uncover possibilities for fostering...