Publications

Gender Norms and the Gender Gap in Higher Education 

with Stefanie J. Huber, Labour Economics, 87, April 2024

ECONtribute Discussion Paper No. 253

Cross-country differences in the gender gap of higher education attainment are large. In this paper, we study the role of gender norms for this particular gender gap. To isolate the effect of gender norms from institutional and economic factors, we investigate the decisions of second-generation immigrants in the United States to achieve at least a bachelor’s degree. We measure gender norms using economic outcomes as well as beliefs prevailing in the migrants’ parents’ country of origin. We find that gender norms explain part of the observed differences in the gender gap in attaining at least a bachelor’s degree. There is also a sizable effect of gender norms on gender gaps in higher educational attainment levels, such as a master’s degree or a PhD. We confirm the gender norms effect using a sample of siblings, which allows us to hold unobservable and observable household characteristics constant.

Time Preferences over the Life Cycle and Household Saving Puzzles

with Wataru Kureishi, Hitoshi Tsujiyama, and Midori Wakabayashi,  Journal of Monetary Economics, 124, November 2021

Most economic models assume that time preferences are stable over time, but the evidence on their long-term stability is lacking. We study whether and how time preferences change over the life cycle, exploiting representative long-term panel data. We provide new evidence that discount rates decrease with age and the decline is remarkably linear over the life cycle. Decreasing discounting helps a canonical lifecycle model to explain the household saving puzzles of undersaving when young and oversaving after retirement. Relative to the model with constant discounting, the model’s fit to consumption and asset data profiles improves by 40% and 30%, respectively.

Cultural Determinants of Household Saving Behavior

with Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln and Paolo Masella,  Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,  52 (5), 2020

Relying on the epidemiological approach, we show that culture is a significant driver of household saving behavior. Second-generation immigrants from countries that put strong emphasis on thrift or wealth accumulation tend to save more in Germany. We confirm these results in data from the UK. By linking parents to their children, we show that these two cultural components affect the saving behavior of both first-generation immigrants and their children.

Long-term Changes in Married Couples' Labor Supply and Taxes: Evidence from the U.S. and Europe Since the 1980s 

with Alexander Bick, Bettina Brüggemann, and Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Journal of International Economics, 118, May 2019

We document the time-series of employment rates and hours worked per employed by married couples in the US and seven European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK) from the early 1980s through 2016. Relying on a model of joint household labor supply decisions, we quantitatively analyze the role of non-linear labor income taxes for explaining the evolution of hours worked of married couples over time, using as inputs the full country- and year-specific statutory labor income tax codes. We further evaluate the role of consumption taxes, gender and educational wage premia, and the educational composition. The model is quite successful in replicating the time series behavior of hours worked per employed married woman, with labor income taxes being the key driving force. It does however capture only part of the secular increase in married women’s employment rates in the 1980s and early 1990s, suggesting an important role for factors not considered in this paper. An independent and important contribution of the paper is that we make the non-linear tax codes used as an input into the analysis available as a user-friendly and easily integrable set of Matlab codes.

Working Papers  and Work in Progress

Does the Right to Work Part-Time Affect Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes?

Bundesbank Discussion Paper No 12/2024, Bundesbank Research Brief, Media Coverage: Börsen-Zeitung

this version: April 2024, first version: July 2019

This paper studies how the statutory right to work part-time affects mothers’ post-birth labor market outcomes. I use a differences-in-differences design to investigate a reform in Germany that granted the right to work part-time to employees of firms with more than 15 employees. I find that the reform increased the probability of eligible mothers working part-time in the short run after childbirth, indicating that the law relaxed a binding constraint. In the longer run, the reform had a positive effect on maternal employment and labor income, but did not change part-time status significantly.

Stuck in a Marriage: The Impact of Income Shocks on Divorce and Intra-Household Allocation

with Wataru Kureishi, Hitoshi Tsujiyama, and Midori Wakabayashi