Kinder - ein Quell der Freude?!

It is well known, that the presences of children lower parental happiness. That is based on psychological and economical reasons. The effect holds on for micro data of the GSOEP. The number of children affects an inverse u-shaped curve on happiness. Even an enlargement of the dataset with macroeconomic variables offers the same results. The effect disappears only after generating terms of interaction for catching some effects of macroeconomic uncertainty. Children turn to be positive. This result could be interpreted as consumption utility of children. Considering these factors, children might be a source of joy

Age and gender differences in job opportunities

There is only a few literature on age specific occupational segregation. In this descriptive paper, I focus on job opportunities for newly hired older male and female workers. It is an enriched replication study of Hutchens (ILRR,1988), who showed that firms employ older workers, but hire them less. I use a rich dataset for West Germany with information for almost thirty years, the regional file of the IAB Employment Sample (IABS-R04). By drawing segregation curves and calculating different measures, such as Dissimilarity Index and Hutchens Square Root Segregation Index, I find clear evidence that age related segregation exists. While newly hired workers in the age groups of 18 to 34 and 35 to 54 are quiet similar distributed in terms of the indices, the oldest age group of 55 years and older, and especially older women, are more segregated. Differences for older male and female workers over time, may be explained by changes in labor and retirement policies

Occupational sex segregation and working time: Regional evidence from Germany

This paper provides descriptive evidence for declining occupational sex segregation on the German labor market, especially concerning the regional differences between the former East and West Germany. I use segregation measures and long-run social security data for the decade of 1992 to 2004. While segregation has declined over time, it remains higher for the eastern part of Germany. Although this finding is observable for full-time and part-time work, segregation is always lower in part-time employment

Working time, satisfaction and work life balance: A European perspective

This paper analyses gender-specific differences in working time mismatches by using three different measures for representing satisfaction and work life balance. Results show that, while male satisfaction with life or work is in general not affected by working for more or less hours, over-time is found to significantly lower male work life balance. Women are more sensitive to the amount of working hours as they prefer part-time employment and they are dissatisfied with changes towards working more or less hours than agreed

A note on happiness in Eastern Europe

Recent studies in economics of happiness focusing on the influence of different aspects of subjective well-being in transition countries. Here these countries are located in Eastern Europe. After aggregating a dataset which combines the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, I use an OLS and ordered probit and ordered logit estimation with marginal effects to perform regressions. The main findings are that individuals in transition countries behave like individuals in western industrialisted countries. This shows the international reliability of approach the happiness research approach.peer-reviewe

Kinder - ein Quell der Freude?!

It is well known, that the presences of children lower parental happiness. That is based on psychological and economical reasons. The effect holds on for micro data of the GSOEP. The number of children affects an inverse u-shaped curve on happiness. Even an enlargement of the dataset with macroeconomic variables offers the same results. The effect disappears only after generating terms of interaction for catching some effects of macroeconomic uncertainty. Children turn to be positive. This result could be interpreted as consumption utility of children. Considering these factors, children might be a source of joy.Happiness, children

Machen Kinder doch glücklich?

In der ökonomischen Zufriedenheitsforschung wird ein negativer Effekt von Kindern auf die elterliche Zufriedenheit ermittelt. Dazu werden oftmals Probitmodelle geschätzt. In diesem Papier wird nun ein fixed effects Modell benutzt. Mittels Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP) werden Personen betrachtet, die im Zeitablauf zu Eltern werden. Es ergibt sich ein signifikant positiver Effekt von Kinder im Haushalt. Weiterhin werden Interaktionsterme gebildet, um Effekte individueller Arbeitslosigkeit einzufangen. Bei arbeitslosen Väter sinkt deutschlandweit die Zufriedenheit. Arbeitslose Mütter erleben in den alten Bundesländern einen positiven Zufriedenheitseffekt, in den neuen einen Negativen. Dies wird als Folge von regional unterschiedlichen weiblichen Erwerbsmustern in Deutschland interpretiert.

Machen Kinder doch glücklich?

In der ökonomischen Zufriedenheitsforschung wird ein negativer Effekt von Kindern auf die elterliche Zufriedenheit ermittelt. Dazu werden oftmals Probitmodelle geschätzt. In diesem Papier wird nun ein fixed effects Modell benutzt. Mittels Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP) werden Personen betrachtet, die im Zeitablauf zu Eltern werden. Es ergibt sich ein signifikant positiver Effekt von Kinder im Haushalt. Weiterhin werden Interaktionsterme gebildet, um Effekte individueller Arbeitslosigkeit einzufangen. Bei arbeitslosen Väter sinkt deutschlandweit die Zufriedenheit. Arbeitslose Mütter erleben in den alten Bundesländern einen positiven Zufriedenheitseffekt, in den neuen einen Negativen. Dies wird als Folge von regional unterschiedlichen weiblichen Erwerbsmustern in Deutschland interpretiert.

Gender Differences in Life Satisfaction and Social Participation

The paper deals with the effects of social participation activities on life satisfaction. Using the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) for 2010, marginal effects of binary probit\ud estimations on life satisfaction are presented. Strong gender differences are observable. While sport, welfare or parental activities affect only female life satisfaction, males are more affected by classical hobbies. As an interesting result that political activities, such as a political party or a union membership, have no or even negative effects. The general results may be interpreted in that way, that activities or memberships with influence in local fields with own responsibility and\ud personal interest in a short of time, may be more satisfying than activities with more idealistic tasks and long run results, such as protecting nature or human rights

Working time, satisfaction and work life balance: A European perspective

Using three different measures for satisfaction, I investigate gender-specific differences in working time mismatch. While male satisfaction with life or job is slightly not effected by working more or less hours, only over-time lowers male work life balance significantly. Women are more sensitive to the amount of working hours. They prefer part-time employment and are dissatisfied with both changes towards over-time and under-time