Master

Die Abschlussarbeit gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der internationalen wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Arbeitsangebot im Rentenalter. Dabei sollen zunächst auf Basis institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen theoretisch zu erwartende Verhaltensanreize diskutiert werden. Anschließend wird der Stand der internationalen Literatur beschrieben, kritisch eingeordnet und kommentiert.

Startliteratur

Anxo, Dominique; Ericson, Thomas; Herbert, Anna (2019). Beyond Retirement: Who Stays at Work after the Standard Age of Retirement? International Journal of Manpower 40 (5), 917-938.

Clark, Robert L., Roberg G. Hammond, and Siyan Liu (2021). Work after Retirement: Worklife Transitions of Career Public Employees, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 20(3), 341-56

Dardier, Agathe (2021). Combining Work and a Pension–Individual Determining Factors and Combiners‘ Profiles, Economie et Statistique/Economics and Statistics, 524-525, 119-135.

Larsen, Mona and Peder J. Pedersen (2017). Labour force activity after 65: what explain recent trends in Denmark, Germany and Sweden? Journal of Labour Market Research 50, 15–27.

Maestas, Nicole (2010). Back to Work: Expectations and Realizations of Work after Retirement, Journal of Human Resources 45(3), 718-748.

This thesis provides an overview of the international literature on the effects of age at school entry on individuals‘ educational and labor market outcomes. The discussion focuses on the potential selection bias and various strategies to identify the causal effects.

Startliteratur

Black, S. E., Devereux, P. J., & Salvanes, K. G. (2011). Too Young to Leave the Nest? The Effects of School Starting Age. Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(2), S. 455-467.

Mühlenweg, A. M., & Puhani, P. A. (2010). The Evolution of the School Entry Age Effect in a School Tracking System. Journal of Human Resources, 45(2), S. 407-438.

Puhani, P., & Weber, A. (2007). Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Empirical Economics, 32, S. 359-386.

The thesis can be written in English or German.

Die Abschlussarbeit erläutert das Konzept der Kinderarmut und beschreibt den Stand der Kenntnis zur Entwicklung von Kinderarmut in Deutschland in den letzten Jahrzehnten. Die wissenschaftliche Literatur zu den erklärenden Faktoren von Kinderarbeit wird strukturiert dargestellt und kritisch diskutiert. Internationale Vergleiche runden die Arbeit ab.

Startliteratur:

Fertig, Michael und Marcus Tamm, 2009, Always Poor or Never Poor and Nothing in Between? Duration of Child Poverty in Germany, German Economic Review 11(2) 150–168.

Wuest, Kirsten und Juergen Volkert, 2012, Childhood and Capability Deprivation in Germany: A Quantitative Analysis Using German Socio-economic Panel Data, Social Indicators Research 106(3), 439-69

Thévenon, Olivier, Thomas Manfredi, Yajna Govind und Ilya Klauzner, 2018, Child poverty in the OECD: Trends, determinants and policies to tackle it. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 218, OECD Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/c69de229-en

Die Arbeit beschreibt den Stand der internationalen Literatur, die die Vererbbarkeit von Sozialhilfe- und Mindestsicherungsbezug untersucht. Ein Fokus liegt auf der Darstellung und Kritik der verwendeten methodischen Ansätze, die teilweise kausale Effekte identifizieren.

Reforms in 1985, 1996, and 2001 led to a deregulation of employment contracts in Germany, leading to more flexible work arrangements and an increasing share of fixed-term contracts. Theoretical effects of these deregulations are often discussed under the concept of ‘labour market dualization’. This thesis reviews the literature on the risks and opportunities of fixed-term contracts and critically examines the current findings for the German labour market.

This thesis can be written in English or German.

Literature:

Boockmann, B., & Hagen, T. (2008). Fixed-term contracts as sorting mechanisms: Evidence from job durations in West Germany. Labour economics, 15(5), 984-1005.

Pfeifer, C. (2012). Fixed-term contracts and wages revisited using linked employer-employee data. Journal for Labour Market Research, 45(2), 171-183.

Gebel, M. (2010). Early career consequences of temporary employment in Germany and the UK. Work, employment and society, 24(4), 641-660.

Parental leave policies are widely regarded as substantial components of family policies in most OECD countries and pursue different objectives. One common policy objective is to support health and development of children in the short run, which may also extend into long-term benefits. The goal of this thesis is to offer a comprehensive and critical literature review concerning paid parental leave policies and their impact on children’s outcomes (e.g. development, health, educational attainment) over the life cycle. The review will place particular emphasis on cross-country disparities with the aim to pinpoint key factors when designing parental leave policies. Furthermore, the thesis will elaborate and discuss the methodologies used for identifying causal effects.

This thesis can be written in English or German.

Starting literature:

Carneiro, P., Løken, K. V., & Salvanes, K. G. (2015). A flying start? Maternity leave benefits and long-run outcomes of children. Journal of Political Economy, 123(2), 365-412.

Fabel, M. (2021). Maternity leave and children’s health outcomes in the long-term. Journal of Health Economics, 76, 102431.

Huebener, M., Kuehnle, D., & Spiess, C. K. (2019). Parental leave policies and socio-economic gaps in child development: Evidence from a substantial benefit reform using administrative data. Labour Economics, 61, 101754.

Research in human capital development indicates that skill gaps often originate early in life, widen over time, and subsequently impact later-life outcomes. Given the critical role of early childhood, extensive research has emerged, demonstrating that early childhood education programs can effectively counteract the emergence and widening of skill gaps, exerting significant influence over an individual’s life course. This thesis conducts a comprehensive investigation of the existing literature and assesses various early childhood education programs concerning their influence on human capital formation and outcomes (e.g. educational attainment, health, crime) along the life-cycle. The results and methodologies will be critically examined, and a theoretical framework will be provided to explain the findings from the reviewed literature.

This thesis can be written in English or German.

Starting literature:

Cunha, F., & Heckman, J. (2007). The technology of skill formation. American economic review, 97(2), 31-47.

Heckman, J., Pinto, R., & Savelyev, P. (2013). Understanding the mechanisms through which an influential early childhood program boosted adult outcomes. American Economic Review, 103(6), 2052-2086.

Kline, P., & Walters, C. R. (2016). Evaluating public programs with close substitutes: The case of Head Start. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1795-1848.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between a child’s age at school entry and its educational success later in life. This thesis starts with an overview of the international literature on the topic. The aim is to perform an empirical analysis for Germany by using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

Die Masterarbeit repliziert die Studie von Stefan Bauernschuster (2013) Dismissmal protection and small firms‘ hirings: evidence from a policy reform, Small Business Economics 40(2), 293-307 mit den Daten des Betriebspanels und prüft die Erweiterung der Analyse auf zusätzliche Beobachtungsjahre.

Im Vergleich zu einem abhängigen Beschäftigungsverhältnis geht die Selbstständigkeit sowohl mit einer größeren Autonomie in der Gestaltung des Arbeitslebens als auch einem größeren Risiko der materiellen und sozialen Absicherung einher. Besonders für die Gruppe der Solo-Selbstständigen werden Prekaritätsrisiken diskutiert. Diese Masterarbeit beschreibt den aktuellen Stand der Forschung zu den Determinanten der Aufnahme einer Solo-Selbstständigkeit und ihren Einflüssen auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden der Selbstständigen. Des Weiteren soll der Zusammenhang von Solo-Selbstständigkeit und dem Wohlbefinden sowie der Gesundheit anhand der Daten des Sozio-Ökonomischen Panels (SOEP) untersucht werden.

Startliteratur:

Andersson, P. (2008). Happiness and health: Well-being among the self-employed. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 37(1), 213-236.

Binder, M., & Coad, A. (2013). Life satisfaction and self-employment: a matching approach. Small business economics, 40(4), 1009-1033.

Lechmann, D. S., & Wunder, C. (2017). The dynamics of solo self-employment: Persistence and transition to employership. Labour Economics, 49, 95-105.