Browsing by Subject "Bildung"

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Die Arbeitsmarktsituation formal Geringqualifizierter in Deutschland : Folgen, Ursachen und Politikimplikationen einer veränderten Nachfrage nach einfacher Arbeit
(2015) Rukwid, Ralf; Hagemann, Harald
This dissertation provides an elaborate discussion of the labour market situation of low-skilled workers in Germany. It starts with a precise description of the employment and wage effects for unskilled labour in the context of a skill-specific structural change and the tendency towards a knowledge-based economy. The analysis focuses on the current job and income opportunities of low-skilled workers as well as the historical developments. This is followed by an overview of the theoretical determinants of the specific labour market problems of unskilled workers and the main explanations for a long-term demand shift away from low-skilled labour (trade vs. technology). Finally, different political approaches for an improvement of the job prospects of less-qualified persons in Germany are presented and evaluated. The focus here is on one hand on various strategies for enhancing flexibility of the German wage structure and on the other hand on a further expansion and improvement of the system of education and vocational training.
Bildung und Forschung im Kontext der digitalen und ökologischen Transformation des Agrarbereichs im Banat und Baden-Württemberg - auf dem Weg zu Ressourceneffizienz und Resilienz
(2023) Weinmann, Markus; Landtag und Staatsministerium Baden-Württemberg , Universität für Lebenswissenschaften " König Michael I " in Timisoara; Raupp, Manfred G.; Ludewig, Uwe; Flad, Angelika
The Banat Green Deal project "GreenERDE" (Education and Research in the context of the digital and ecological transformation of agriculture in the Banat Region and Baden-Württemberg - towards resource efficiency and resilience) aimed to strengthen the the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in the Romanian Banat, Baden-Württemberg and neighboring regions with innovative technical and at the same time socio-cultural connect interesting content. The advanced training program “Farming in Responsibility for Our Common World” carried out as part of this project aims at the transfer of knowledge and experience among farmers and other interested persons. Current and future challenges, such as ecological conversion and the digital transformation of agricultural production, but also social, economic and cultural aspects were addressed. Innovative and relevant knowledge from practice, research or development projects throughout Europe and other continents is presented.
Incomes and asset poverty dynamics and child health among pastoralists in Northern Kenya
(2016) Mburu, Samuel; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso
In chapter one we identified the levels, sources, and trends of household incomes across the five survey waves. We also estimated and compared the income and asset poverty levels. Income poverty was estimated using imputed household income relative to the adjusted poverty line and asset poverty using a regression-based asset index and tropical livestock units (TLU) per capita. Our results indicate that keeping livestock is still the pastoralists’ main source of livelihood, although there is a notable trend of increasing livelihood diversification, especially among livestock-poor households. Majority of the households (over 70%) are both income and livestock poor with few having escaped poverty within the five-year study period. Disaggregating income and asset poverty also reveals an increasing trend of both structurally poor and stochastically non-poor households. The findings show that the TLU-based asset poverty is a more appropriate measure of asset poverty in a pastoral setting. In chapter two we explored the household welfare dynamics among pastoral households in the study area. First, we developed a microeconomic model to analyze the impact of a shock (e.g., a drought) on the behavioral decisions of pastoralists. Secondly, we estimated the existence of single or multiple dynamic equilibria that may constitute an asset poverty trap. We used the tropical livestock units (TLUs) to establish the shape of asset dynamics to locate the welfare equilibria for the sampled households. We also estimated the household characteristics and covariate environmental factors that influence livestock accumulation over time. We use both non-parametric and semi-parametric techniques to establish the shape of asset accumulation path and determine whether multiple equilibria exist. From the model, we found that a negative shock like a drought leads to an immediate decrease in livestock followed by a smooth reduction in consumption. Because the shock also affects the local economy, it prompts a wage decrease, which reinforces the pastoralist’s incentives to tend his own livestock and reduce time spent in the external labor market. Whereas the pastoralist’s labor time allocation shows a pattern of quick convergence, however, the adjustment of other variables such as consumption and capital takes much longer. Food aid helps in smoothening consumption especially among households with few livestock. We established that livestock assets converge to a single stable equilibrium implying that households remained livestock poor in the short term. Such convergence to a stable equilibrium could result from households with more livestock smoothening their consumption during times of food shortage by drawing on their herds for sale or consumption while livestock poor households smoothen their assets by using coping strategies that do not deplete their few livestock holdings. Poor households thus destabilized their consumption to buffer and protect their few assets for future income and survival. We also found that forage availability and herd diversity influenced livestock accumulation over time. In chapter three we established the extent of malnutrition among children by analyzing the levels of malnutrition among children aged five years and below. Additionally, we estimated the effects of drought, measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), on child health outcomes. When the lack of sufficient rainfall reduces the levels of vegetative greenness, the corresponding lower NDVI values indicate forage scarcity. We followed the approach by Chantarat et al. (2012) and transformed the pure NDVI values to z-scores. We used the average NDVI Z-score values from long dry season (June, July, August, and September) for each survey year, extracted from four regions within Marsabit District. We then proxied the nutritional status of children using the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). We adjusted the MUAC for the age and sex of the child by converting the values to a MUAC Z-score based on WHO growth charts, as Z-scores are found to be better indicators of wasting than the fixed cut-off value (WHO 2009). The results show that malnutrition among children is prevalent in the study area, with approximately 20% of the children being malnourished and a one standard deviation increase in NDVI z-score decreases the probability of child malnourishment by 12–16 percent. The livestock insurance seems to be an effective risk management tool, as it slightly reduces the probability of malnutrition among children. Child health is also impacted by local conditions and family characteristics, which leave older children worse off than younger siblings who are still being breastfed or receive better care. In the most vulnerable households, boys are worse off than girls. At the same time, male-headed households tend to have healthier children, while family size is negatively associated with child MUAC. To reduce the effects of drought on child malnutrition, the targeting of food aid beneficiaries is crucial, and the use of remote sensing data could improve the effectiveness of these interventions. In chapter four we sought to understand the levels of school enrolment and gender differences in schooling given the challenges of accessibility to schools in the pastoral areas. First, we established levels of school enrolment by gender. Secondly, we estimated the effect of herd migration on school attendance and thirdly we gathered the community perceptions about challenges that school going children face and how they can be addressed. We used both household panel data for children aged between 6 and 15 years and community data obtained from some focus group discussions. Results showed that the effect of herd migration on school attendance is significant and negative: once other factors are controlled for, the predicted probability of child failure to attend school is 26% for households that migrate their livestock. On the other hand, attendance is positively impacted by the educational level of both the household head and his spouse. The analysis of survey data indicates that over the five years studied, school enrollment increased for both boys and girls, averaging 63.6% and 69.0%, respectively, in 2013. During the same period, the school dropout rate was quite low (less than 10%) although still higher among boys than among girls. The mean schooling efficiency (relative grade attained) was 0.67, which implies inefficiency in grade progression. Girls were better off than boys in terms of both grade attainment and staying in school, while children from more educated families showed a higher schooling efficiency than those from less educated families. At the same time, boys are less likely to attend school than girls, probably, the FGD participants confirmed, because boys engage in more economically valued activities like herding, which raises the opportunity costs of their absence for school. Girls, in contrast, engaged mostly in nonmonetizable household duties. Nevertheless, as key barriers to school attendance, the participants identified too few schools, nomadism and communal conflicts.
Non-financial hurdles for human capital accumulation : landownership in Korea under Japanese rule
(2014) Kim, Tai-Yoo; Jun, Bogang
This paper suggests that inequality in landownership is a nonfinancial hurdle for human capital accumulation. It is the first to present evidence that inequality in landownership had an adverse effect on the level of public education in the Korean colonial period. Using a fixed effects model, the present research exploits variations in inequality in land concentration across regions in Korea and accounts for the unobserved heterogeneity across these regions. The analysis establishes a highly significant adverse effect of Land inequality on education in the Korean colonial period.
The size of the middle class and educational outcomes : theory and evidence from the Indian subcontinent
(2018) Seiffert, Sebastian; Prettner, Klaus
This paper proposes a stylised model to derive the effect of a sizeable middle class on average educational outcomes. Under reasonable assumptions, the model predicts that the spending share on education increases if the middle class becomes larger such that the size of the middle class has a positive impact on education. We test the relationship empirically by using village/neighbourhood level data from Indian household surveys. To tackle the issue of potential endogeneity of the middle class share of the population, we propose a novel instrument that relies on the fraction of the population belonging to the third (middle) caste (“sudra”). Using this IV strategy, our empirical results support a positive effect of a larger middle class on educational outcomes. Furthermore, we show that the share of the middle class is a more important determinant of female education than male education and that the effect of the middle class on education is more pronounced in rural areas.
Three essays in empirical economics
(2019) Seiffert, Sebastian Daniel; Beißinger, Thomas
In the preface of one of the most established textbooks "Economics" by Samuelson and Nordhaus (1998), the authors state that the ultimate goal of economics is to improve the living conditions of people in their everyday life". In this spirit, the underlying thesis empirically assesses three heterogenous topics which all can be linked via their impact on (economic) well-being. It contributes to the scientific landscape by tackling the questions at hand utilising novel and newly constructed data sets which have not been commonly used in economic research. The thesis comprises three chapters which will be summarised in the following. Gun Violence in the US: Correlates and Causes This chapter provides a county-level investigation of the economically-motivated gun violence in the US. To guide our empirical analysis, we develop a simple theoretical model which suggests that firearm-related robberies in a given county increase with the number of illegal guns and decrease with social capital and police intensity. Using detailed FBI data from 1986-2014, we find empirical evidence for the role of illegal guns, social capital, and police intensity in line with our theoretical predictions. To investigate the causal effect of illegal guns, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in illegal firearm supplies due to gun thefts in contiguous states. The Size of the Middle Class and Educational Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the Indian Subcontinent This chapter proposes a stylised model to derive the effect of a sizeable middle class on average educational outcomes. Under the reasonable assumptions, the model predicts that the spending share on education increases if the middle class becomes larger such that the size of the middle class has a positive impact on education. We test the relationship empirically by using village/neighbourhood level data from Indian household surveys. To tackle the the issue of potential endogeneity of the middle class share of the population, we propose a novel instrument that relies on the fraction of the population belonging to the third (middle) caste ("sudra"). Using this IV strategy, our empirical results support a positive effect. Go East: On the Impact of the Transsiberian Railway on Economic Development in Eastern Russia This chapter addresses the question whether or not large-scale infrastructure investments have a causal effect of local economic development. By using a novel instrumental variable approach based on historical trade and travel routes across the Russian East, I am able to identify a causal and negative effect of remoteness to the Transsiberian Railway on local economic activity as measured by nocturnal lights emission.