We estimate the effects of hiring subsidies for older workers on transitions from unemployment to employment in Germany. Using a natural experiment, our first set of estimates is based on a legal change extending the group of eligible unemployed persons. A subsequent legal change in the opposite direction is used to validate these results. Our data cover the population of unemployed jobseekers in Germany and was specifically made available for our purposes from administrative data. Consistent support for an employment effect of hiring subsidies can only be found for women in East Germany. Concerning other population groups, firms’ hiring behavior is hardly influenced by the program and hiring subsidies mainly lead to deadweight effects. (JEL: J64, H24, C31)

This paper uses student-level Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to analyze the determinants of schooling quality for seven Eastern European transition countries by estimating educational production functions. The results show substantial effects of student background on educational performance and a much lower impact of resources and the institutional setting. Two different groups of countries emerge. For the first group that features high mean test scores and has progressed far in transition, large effects of family background on student performance and a higher spread of test scores illustrate the similarity to Western European schooling systems, the performance of which it surpasses. Schools of the second group produce instead a denser distribution of educational achievement, characteristic of communist societies. r

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp06060.pdf Nontechnical summaryThe difference between girls and boys academic performance is a major issue on both sides of the Atlantic. The consequences of gender differences in achievement have made the cover story of Newsweek in the form of 'The Boy Crisis' and in the UK there is much consternation each summer when the results of the annual school GCSE exams are published. These figures show how girls are significantly outperforming boys and they are regularly dissected in the media.To date, the work on this topic has taken an introspective form by examining subjective evaluations of pupils by their teachers or,-at best -nationally determined tests. The objective of this paper is to study the differences in girls and boys achievement using data from different countries which is directly comparable and not subject to the norms and processes of that country's own examination system. One factor which has received increasing attention is the possibility of gender interaction effects, i.e. if boys perform better when taught by male teachers and girls perform better when taught by female teachers. This paper investigates the presence of such 'pupil-teacher gender interactions' on scholastic performance. In this paper we explore this phenomenon at grade 4 and grade 8 in Reading, Maths and Science using TIMSS and PIRLS data for England and the United States.We find some positive joint pupil-teacher gender interaction effects in the teaching of Maths in England but not the USA in the most recent data for 2003. This would suggest that, all other factors controlled for, there will be a slight advantage to teaching Maths to boys with male teachers and to girls with female teachers in England. An important finding is that there is no gender interaction effect between girls and boys at grade 4 (age 9). This is despite a significant raw difference between girls and boys in Maths and Science in the USA. This suggests that the differences we find between boys and girls and the presence of the gender interaction effect operate at an older age. Perhaps one of the most important implications of these findings is that in order to facilitate any advantage of gender interaction effects we need more male teachers. In both the UK and the US around 75% of teachers are female. Hence it makes sense -if gender interaction effects are present -to recruit more male teachers. Pupil-Teacher Gender Inter...

No abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp07001.pdf Nontechnical SummaryOlder workers frequently have difficulties to find new work after unemployment. This study is part of the evaluation of the "Hartz laws" commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Economic Affairs. We examine whether eligibility to the program increases the chances to make the transition from unemployment to employment. The effect of eligibility on the transition rate into employment has been studied less frequently than the effect of actual subsidy receipt on integration into unsubsidized employment. However, the former effect is a precondition for the latter: if the availability of subsidies does not change hiring behavior, there is no reason why subsidies should affect individual transitions into unsubsidized employment.To estimate the effect of eligibility, we use two changes in the legal rules. Estimates from duration analysis of the transition rate show that, for the population as a whole, the probability of leaving unemployment and entering employment is unaffected by the availability of hiring subsidies. For women in East Germany, however, extending eligibility led to an increase in exit from unemployment by six percentage points, while the ending of the specific subsidy program for older workers lowered their employment chances by about twopercentage points. Further analysis shows that the ineffectiveness for most population groups is due to deadweight effects: an increase in subsidized hirings is accompanied by a decline in unsubsidized new employment. Do Hiring Subsidies Abstract:We estimate the effects of hiring subsidies for older workers on transitions from unemployment to employment in Germany. Using a natural experiment, our first set of estimates is based on a legal change extending the group of eligible unemployed persons. A subsequent legal change in the opposite direction is used to validate these results. Our data cover the population of unemployed jobseekers in Germany and was specifically made available for our purposes from administrative data. Consistent support for an employment effect of hiring subsidies can only be found for women in East Germany. Concerning other population groups, firms´ hiring behavior is hardly influenced by the program and hiring subsidies mainly lead to deadweight effects. JEL-Codes: J 64, H 24, C 31