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Television Role Models and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
Peter Bönisch, Walter Hyll
SOEPpapers, Nr. 752,
No. 752,
2015
Abstract
In this paper we study the effect of television exposure on fertility. We exploit a natural experiment that took place in Germany after WWII. For topographical reasons, Western TV programs, which promoted one/no child families, could not be received in certain parts of East Germany. Using an IV approach, we find robust evidence that watching West German TV results in lower fertility. This conclusion is robust to alternative model specifications and data sets. Our results imply that individual fertility decisions are affected by role models or information about other ways of life promoted by media.
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Is There Monopsonistic Discrimination against Immigrants?
Boris Hirsch, Elke J. Jahn
ILR Review,
No. 3,
2015
Abstract
The authors investigate immigrants’ and natives’ labor supply to the firm within an estimation approach based on a dynamic monopsony framework. Applying duration models that account for unobserved worker heterogeneity to a large administrative employer–employee data set for Germany, they find that immigrants supply labor less elastically to firms than do natives. Under monopsonistic wage setting, the estimated elasticity differential predicts a 7.7 log points wage penalty for immigrants thereby accounting for the entire unexplained native–immigrant wage differential of 5.8 to 8.2 log points. When further distinguishing immigrant groups differing in their time spent in the German labor market, their immigration cohort, and their age at entry, the authors find that the observed unexplained wage differential is larger for those groups that show a larger elasticity differential relative to natives. These findings not only suggest that search frictions are a likely cause of employers’ more pronounced monopsony power over their immigrant workers but also imply that employers profit from discriminating against immigrants.
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Adjustments in the Use of Temporary Agency before and during the 2008/2009 Economic Crisis
Steffen Müller
Industrielle Beziehungen,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
The use of temporary agency work in Germany strongly increased between 2002 and the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009. This increase was characterised by an intensified use in medium and large manufacturing plants and was concentrated within user firms, i.e. the intensive margin was dominant. These phenomena can be explained with reduced transaction costs and strong international competition and they indicate increased productivity amongst user firms. The sharp decline in the use of temporary agency work during the economic crisis was concentrated among exporters and large manufacturing plants and mostly driven by the extensive margin. Employment opportunities in the temporary work sector were in particular sensitive to changes in the international demand for goods of the German manufacturing sector.
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