Uta Schönberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 1004845 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Uta Schönberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Uta |
| FAMILY NAME | Schönberg |
| SIGNATURE | SCHÖNBERG U |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 92 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Effects of Immigration on Places and People – Identification and Interpretation
Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debate but remain unidentified with repeated cross-sectional data. We provide a unifying empirical framework that decomposes the regional effects of immigration into their underlying co…
Who Benefits from Universal Child Care? Estimating Marginal Returns to Early Child Care Attendance
In this paper, we examine the heterogeneous treatment effects of a universal child care (preschool) program in Germany by exploiting the exogenous variation in attendance caused by a reform that led to a large staggered expansion across municipalities. Drawing on novel administrative data from the full population of compulsory school entry examinations, we find that children with lower (observed and unobserved) gains are more likely to select int…
On the economics and politics of refugee migration
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of refugee migration, with emphasis on the current refugee crisis. After first reviewing the institutional framework laid out by the Geneva Convention for Refugees, we demonstrate that, despite numerous attempts at developing a common European asylum policy, EU countries continue to differ widely in interpretation and implementation. We then describe key features of the current refugee crisis and docum…
Labor Supply Shocks, Native Wages, and the Adjustment of Local Employment
By exploiting a commuting policy that led to a sharp and unexpected inflow of Czech workers to areas along the German-Czech border, we examine the impact of an exogenous immigration-induced labor supply shock on local wages and employment of natives. On average, the supply shock leads to a moderate decline in local native wages and a sharp decline in local native employment. These average effects mask considerable heterogeneity across groups: whi…
The Long‐Term Effects of Early Track Choice
We investigate the effects of attending a more advanced track in middle school on long‐term education and labour market outcomes for Germany, a country with a rigorous early‐age tracking system, where the risk of misallocating students is particularly high. Our research design exploits quasi‐random shifts between tracks induced by date of birth, and speaks to the long‐term effects of early track attendance for a group of marginal students most at…
Referral-based Job Search Networks
The Impact of Immigration: Why Do Studies Reach Such Different Results
We classify the empirical literature on the wage impact of immigration into three groups, where studies in the first two groups estimate different relative effects, and studies in the third group estimate the total effect of immigration on wages. We interpret the estimates obtained from the different approaches through the lens of the canonical model to demonstrate that they are not comparable. We then relax two key assumptions in this literature…
Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes after Childbirth
This article analyzes the impact of five major expansions in maternity leave coverage in Germany on mothers’ labor market outcomes after childbirth. To identify the causal impact of the reforms, we use a difference-in-difference design that compares labor market outcomes of mothers who give birth shortly before and shortly after a change in maternity leave legislation in years of policy changes and years when no changes have taken place. Each exp…
From Sick Man of Europe to Economic Superstar: Germany's Resurgent Economy
In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, Germany was often called “the sick man of Europe.” Indeed, Germany's economic growth averaged only about 1.2 percent per year from 1998 to 2005, including a recession in 2003, and unemployment rates rose from 9.2 percent in 1998 to 11.1 percent in 2005. Today, after the Great Recession, Germany is described as an “economic superstar.” In contrast to most of its European neighbors and the United States, …
How General Is Human Capital? A Task‐Based Approach
This article studies how portable skills accumulated in the labor market are. Using rich data on tasks performed in occupations, we propose the concept of task‐specific human capital to measure empirically the transferability of skills across occupations. Our results on occupational mobility and wages show that labor market skills are more portable than previously considered. We find that individuals move to occupations with similar task requirem…
Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling
This article documents that at the start of school, pupils from most ethnic groups substantially lag behind White British pupils. However, these gaps decline for all groups throughout compulsory schooling. Language is the single most important factor why ethnic minority pupils improve relative to White British pupils. Poverty, in contrast, does not contribute to the catch-up. Our results also suggest the possibility that the greater than average …
Revisiting the German Wage Structure
This paper challenges the view that the wage structure in West-Germany has remained stable throughout the 80s and 90s. Based on a 2 % sample of social security records, we show that wage inequality has increased in the 1980s, but only at the top of the distribution. In the early 1990s, wage inequality started to rise also at the bottom of the distribution. Hence, while the US and Germany experienced similar changes at the top of the distribution …
Training and Union Wages
This paper investigates whether unions, through imposing wage floors that lead to wage compression, increase on-the-job training. Our analysis focuses on Germany. Based on a model of unions and firm-financed training, we derive empirical implications regarding apprenticeship training intensity, layoffs, wage cuts, and wage compression in unionized and nonunionized firms. We test these implications using firm panel data matched with administrative…
Wage Growth Due to Human Capital Accumulation and Job Search: A Comparison between the United States and Germany
This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudina…
Who Benefits from Universal Child Care? Estimating Marginal Returns to Early Child Care Attendance
In this paper, we examine the heterogeneous treatment effects of a universal child care (preschool) program in Germany by exploiting the exogenous variation in attendance caused by a reform that led to a large staggered expansion across municipalities. Drawing on novel administrative data from the full population of compulsory school entry examinations, we find that children with lower (observed and unobserved) gains are more likely to select int…
The Impact of Immigration: Why Do Studies Reach Such Different Results
We classify the empirical literature on the wage impact of immigration into three groups, where studies in the first two groups estimate different relative effects, and studies in the third group estimate the total effect of immigration on wages. We interpret the estimates obtained from the different approaches through the lens of the canonical model to demonstrate that they are not comparable. We then relax two key assumptions in this literature…
Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling
This article documents that at the start of school, pupils from most ethnic groups substantially lag behind White British pupils. However, these gaps decline for all groups throughout compulsory schooling. Language is the single most important factor why ethnic minority pupils improve relative to White British pupils. Poverty, in contrast, does not contribute to the catch-up. Our results also suggest the possibility that the greater than average …
The Long‐Term Effects of Early Track Choice
We investigate the effects of attending a more advanced track in middle school on long‐term education and labour market outcomes for Germany, a country with a rigorous early‐age tracking system, where the risk of misallocating students is particularly high. Our research design exploits quasi‐random shifts between tracks induced by date of birth, and speaks to the long‐term effects of early track attendance for a group of marginal students most at…
Wage Growth Due to Human Capital Accumulation and Job Search: A Comparison between the United States and Germany
This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudina…
Wage Growth Due to Human Capital Accumulation and Job Search: A Comparison between the United States and Germany
This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudina…
Revisiting the German Wage Structure
This paper challenges the view that the wage structure in West-Germany has remained stable throughout the 80s and 90s. Based on a 2 % sample of social security records, we show that wage inequality has increased in the 1980s, but only at the top of the distribution. In the early 1990s, wage inequality started to rise also at the bottom of the distribution. Hence, while the US and Germany experienced similar changes at the top of the distribution …
Training and Union Wages
This paper investigates whether unions, through imposing wage floors that lead to wage compression, increase on-the-job training. Our analysis focuses on Germany. Based on a model of unions and firm-financed training, we derive empirical implications regarding apprenticeship training intensity, layoffs, wage cuts, and wage compression in unionized and nonunionized firms. We test these implications using firm panel data matched with administrative…
How General Is Human Capital? A Task‐Based Approach
This article studies how portable skills accumulated in the labor market are. Using rich data on tasks performed in occupations, we propose the concept of task‐specific human capital to measure empirically the transferability of skills across occupations. Our results on occupational mobility and wages show that labor market skills are more portable than previously considered. We find that individuals move to occupations with similar task requirem…
Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling
This article documents that at the start of school, pupils from most ethnic groups substantially lag behind White British pupils. However, these gaps decline for all groups throughout compulsory schooling. Language is the single most important factor why ethnic minority pupils improve relative to White British pupils. Poverty, in contrast, does not contribute to the catch-up. Our results also suggest the possibility that the greater than average …
Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes after Childbirth
This article analyzes the impact of five major expansions in maternity leave coverage in Germany on mothers’ labor market outcomes after childbirth. To identify the causal impact of the reforms, we use a difference-in-difference design that compares labor market outcomes of mothers who give birth shortly before and shortly after a change in maternity leave legislation in years of policy changes and years when no changes have taken place. Each exp…
From Sick Man of Europe to Economic Superstar: Germany's Resurgent Economy
In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, Germany was often called “the sick man of Europe.” Indeed, Germany's economic growth averaged only about 1.2 percent per year from 1998 to 2005, including a recession in 2003, and unemployment rates rose from 9.2 percent in 1998 to 11.1 percent in 2005. Today, after the Great Recession, Germany is described as an “economic superstar.” In contrast to most of its European neighbors and the United States, …
Referral-based Job Search Networks
The Impact of Immigration: Why Do Studies Reach Such Different Results
We classify the empirical literature on the wage impact of immigration into three groups, where studies in the first two groups estimate different relative effects, and studies in the third group estimate the total effect of immigration on wages. We interpret the estimates obtained from the different approaches through the lens of the canonical model to demonstrate that they are not comparable. We then relax two key assumptions in this literature…
On the economics and politics of refugee migration
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of refugee migration, with emphasis on the current refugee crisis. After first reviewing the institutional framework laid out by the Geneva Convention for Refugees, we demonstrate that, despite numerous attempts at developing a common European asylum policy, EU countries continue to differ widely in interpretation and implementation. We then describe key features of the current refugee crisis and docum…
Labor Supply Shocks, Native Wages, and the Adjustment of Local Employment
By exploiting a commuting policy that led to a sharp and unexpected inflow of Czech workers to areas along the German-Czech border, we examine the impact of an exogenous immigration-induced labor supply shock on local wages and employment of natives. On average, the supply shock leads to a moderate decline in local native wages and a sharp decline in local native employment. These average effects mask considerable heterogeneity across groups: whi…
The Long‐Term Effects of Early Track Choice
We investigate the effects of attending a more advanced track in middle school on long‐term education and labour market outcomes for Germany, a country with a rigorous early‐age tracking system, where the risk of misallocating students is particularly high. Our research design exploits quasi‐random shifts between tracks induced by date of birth, and speaks to the long‐term effects of early track attendance for a group of marginal students most at…
Who Benefits from Universal Child Care? Estimating Marginal Returns to Early Child Care Attendance
In this paper, we examine the heterogeneous treatment effects of a universal child care (preschool) program in Germany by exploiting the exogenous variation in attendance caused by a reform that led to a large staggered expansion across municipalities. Drawing on novel administrative data from the full population of compulsory school entry examinations, we find that children with lower (observed and unobserved) gains are more likely to select int…
The Effects of Immigration on Places and People – Identification and Interpretation
Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debate but remain unidentified with repeated cross-sectional data. We provide a unifying empirical framework that decomposes the regional effects of immigration into their underlying co…
Economics (13 works) · Labour economics (9 works) · Demographic economics (8 works) · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality (7 works) · Wage (6 works) · Economic growth (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (4 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (3 works) · German (3 works)