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Using data from the SOEP, we analyze the wellbeing impact of underemployment through overeducation to examine a broader definition of employment loss. Persons leaving a job through exogenous reasons but entering directly into immediate employment may not find a perfect employment match and cannot use their skills fully in the new job. We demonstrate that a 'downchange', although welfare reducing, may be more desirable than suffering the large welfare losses associated with unemployment whilst searching for a more suitable job match. Nonetheless, underemployed persons do not enter into the official job statistics, whilst their welfare loss due to 'downchange' is approximately 50% of the welfare loss of entry into unemployment. Dieses Papier analysiert die Auswirkungen von Überqualifikation auf die individuelle Wohlfahrt, gemessen durch Lebenszufriedenheit. Mit Daten des deutschen Sozio-ökonomischen Panels (SOEP) wird untersucht, ob Überqualifikation nicht-monetäre Effekte nach sich zieht. Dabei wird analysiert, ob Überqualifikation einen Einfluss auf die individuelle Wohlfahrt, gemessen durch die individuelle Lebenszufriedenheit, hat. Um kausale Effekte zu identifizieren, liegt der Fokus dabei auf Personen, die unfreiwillig überqualifiziert sind. Dies sind Personen, die ihrer Job unfreiwillig - identifiziert durch eine Firmenschließung - verlassen müssen, in einen neuen Job wechseln und in diesem überqualifiziert sind. Dadurch kann der unfreiwillige Wechsel in einen schlechten job match, downchanging, mit dem Wechsel in einen treffenden Job und in die Arbeitslosigkeit verglichen werden. Dabei ist zu sehen, dass der unfreiwillige Jobwechsel keine Konsequenzen für die individuelle Wohlfahrt hat, wenn dieser im Bezug auf die Ausbildung passend ist. Sowohl für einen Wechsel in die Überqualifikation, als auch für einen Wechsel in die Arbeitslosigkeit können große, negative Effekte auf die Lebenszufriedenheit identifiziert werden. Der Vergleich der Koeffizienten zeigt, dass der downchange Effekt halb so groß ist wie der Effekt der Arbeitslosigkeit und sie nicht statistisch signifikant unterschiedlich sind. Dies bedeutet, dass der Effekt eines Wechsels in die Überqualifikation sehr deutliche, negative Konsequenzen auf das individuelle Wohlbefinden hat, welche in der öffentlichen und politischen Diskussion von Arbeitsmarktstatistiken nicht beachtet werden. Insbesondere kann gezeigt werden, dass die Kosten von Firmenschließungen weit höher sind als bisher angenommen und sich auch auf Personen erstrecken, die eine neue Anstellung finden.

This paper outlines a panel data retrieval program written for Stata/SE 10 or better, which allows easier accessing of complex panel data sets. Using a drop-down menu and mouse click system, the researcher selects variables from any and all available years of a panel study. The data is automatically retrieved and merged to form a "long file", which can be directly used by the Stata panel estimators. The system implements modular data cleaning programs called "plugins". Yearly updates to the data retrievals can be made automatically. Projects can be stored in libraries allowing modular administration and appending. The paper exemplifies the power of PanelWhiz using the example of the German SOEP (German Socio-Economic Panel Study).

The level of violence in the National Hockey League (NHL) reached its highest point in 1987 and has reduced somewhat since then, although to levels much larger than before the first team expansions in 1967. Using publicly available information from several databases 1996-2007, the incentives for violence in North American ice hockey are analyzed. We examine the role of penalty minutes and more specifically, fighting, during the regular season in determining wages for professional hockey players and team-level success indicators. There are substantial returns paid not only to goal scoring skills but also to fighting ability, helping teams move higher in the playoffs and showing up as positive wage premia for otherwise observed low-skill wing players. These estimated per-fight premia, depending on fight success ($10,000 to $18,000), are even higher than those for an additional point made. By introducing a fight fine of twice the maximum potential gain ($36,000) and adding this amount to salaries paid for the team salary cap (fines would be 6.7% of the team salary cap or the average wage of 2 players), then all involved would have either little or no incentives to allow fighting to continue.

In this paper we test the Rational Expectations hypothesis using longitudinal data on expectations and realizations of individual welfare for East Germans in the years following reunification. German reunification was unexpected and delivered a large shock to the future prospects of the inhabitants of the former East Germany. We therefore take it as a 'natural' experiment through which to study the rationality of expectations. Our results show that East Germans significantly over-estimated the welfare gains immediately following reunification. The prediction error was largest for the young, the poorly educated and those with children. However, expectations and realizations of life satisfaction in East Germany had converged by 1995, at a level considerably below that of West Germans. We hence conclude that expectations were close to rational after the dust of reunification had settled, but that expectations are not likely to be rational in times of great transition or volatility.

We quantify the value of changes in life circumstances in Germany following reunification. To this end, we develop and implement a fixed-effect estimator for ordinal life satisfaction in the German Socio-Economic Panel. We find strong negative effects on life satisfaction from being recently fired, losing a spouse through either death or separation and time spent in hospital, whilst we find strong positive effects from income and marriage. Using a new causal decomposition technique, we find that East Germans experienced a continued improvement in life satisfaction after 1990 to which increased household incomes contributed around 12%. Most of the increase is explained by improved average circumstances, such as public services. For West Germans, we find virtually no change in satisfaction between 1991 and 1999.