Search

This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit's association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics; whether grit's associations with career success varied across countries; and whether this variation could be explained by labour market conditions (unemployment rates). Multi-group structural equation models with data from 6,738 respondents from 19 countries revealed that grit was incrementally associated with income and job satisfaction in some but not all countries. Grit's effect sizes were mostly modest, yet there were some indications for variations by education and labour market conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that the associations between grit and career success are not uniform but vary across individuals and contexts.

Changing labour markets, increased calls for selection and excellence, and increased diversity and individualisation have repercussions on how educational systems can prepare youth for work, optimise knowledge production, achieve equality of opportunity, and socialise students into active civic engagement. This paper discusses four central tasks of schooling and examines to what extent societal developments challenge education policy to deliver on the tasks at hand. Particular attention is given to the challenges Europe's strongly diversified educational systems are currently facing. Both the Netherlands and Germany, for example, have been offering vocationally-oriented pathways alongside traditional academic higher education for some time. But today's ongoing changes in job descriptions, mainly due to ever-accelerating technological developments, are causing a risk of skills obsolescence which can only be avoided by continuous upskilling and/or reskilling of a sufficiently flexible workforce. Overcoming differences of intelligence as well as differences of diverse socioeconomic, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds by way of education is another challenge, as is fostering "soft" skills and political awareness. This paper investigates the effectiveness of current education systems in preparing citizens for a functioning modern society.

In this paper, the authors first discuss the Neumark and Troske piece, and then compare the U.S. context to that in Europe and Korea, as described by the Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench and the Cho and Shin contributions. Although they are in basic agreement with Neumark and Troske on the extent and depth of the current employment situation, they differ to some extent in terms of remedies. While Neumark and Troske argue that the stimulus packages had a very small impact on the economy, the authors feel that this may be too negative an assessment, especially given the larger global financial forces that seem to overwhelm domestic job creation efforts. The European and Korean papers contribute an important comparative perspective on the recession. As Cho and Shin argue, Korea fared very well due to rising demand for domestic consumption and a very small welfare state. However, Korean institutions are hard to convert or directly compare to those in the United States. It is hard to tell a "European story" because of the large difference in institutions and the differing impacts of the recession. Germany and Scandinavia have clearly done much better than Spain, Greece, or Ireland. Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench emphasize that if the gains are to be longer term, there needs to be "structural reform" of the labor market--to "strengthen labor market policies that reduce structural unemployment rates, increase labor market participation, strengthen the reallocation of labor toward a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy, and promote social cohesion by targeting specific groups of workers." All of this sounds great, but how does the United States move toward these goals? It is harder than one might expect to extract some clear lessons about how deeper economic pain could have been avoided or how one might be able to make more significant or rapid progress in pulling the U.S. labor market out of its malaise. If anything, the authors find that, of the nations examined in this set of articles, each has a different story to tell about the great recession, and the reality is that in every case, the stories are not yet fully told. (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: This paper aims to explore structural and systemic influences in the development of competence models and qualifications systems at sectoral and national levels across Europe, considering the influences of different socio-economic models of skill formation on the processes of design and provision of qualifications. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a meta analysis of three European projects that used literature review, documentary analysis and interviews with practitioners and policy makers. Findings: The main methodological and practical challenges posed by varieties of competence and qualifications to inter-country comparability of qualifications are shown to be related to different socio-economic models of skill formation. Research limitations/implications: The research is limited to 13 countries and four sectors but these were carefully selected to maximise coverage of European diversity with respect to competence models, training regimes and approaches to qualifications. There is clearly a need for further research involving more countries and sectors. Practical implications: The paper offers recommendations for improving the potential of the European Qualifications Framework to promote comparability of qualifications and hence mobility of labour. These recommendations will be of interest to policy makers and practitioners involved in using the EQF and similar instruments. Originality/value: This is the first systematic attempt to explore the methodological and practical difficulties of establishing comparability between qualifications. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper is a theoretical examination of three major empirical trends that affect many people: globalisation, increasingly close relations between higher education (HE) and labour markets, and increasing social inequality. Its aim is to identify key theoretical resources and their contribution to the development of a comparative theoretical framework for understanding countries' responses to globalisation with respect to HE and the labour market, and the significance of such responses for social inequality. The method consists in developing a theoretical reading of Bourdieu's and Brown's theoretical concepts of social inequality in the interrelation of HE and labour market. As a result this paper presents preliminary ideas for the theoretical comparison of current societies' HE systems and labour markets with regard to social inequality in the age of globalisation. It concludes by illustrating the need for further comparative research in this area. (Contains 2 notes.)

In recent years, the transition from higher education to work in comparative perspective has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Previous studies reveal similarities and differences in labour market outcomes across countries, but explanatory frameworks mainly refer to fields of study, whereas differences by types of institutions and types of degrees remain largely descriptive. Therefore, this paper specifically focuses on these institutional structures by arguing that the institutional stratification of higher education systems is crucial for shaping graduate employment prospects. More specifically, it is assumed that the higher the vertical differentiation of types of institutions or types of degrees, the stronger the differences of employment outcomes. This assumption is tested empirically by analysing two country cases most different in the institutional set-up of their higher education systems: Germany and Britain. By applying hazard models to the German Socio-Economic Panel and two British cohort studies (NCDS and BCS70), the paper shows that the vertical differentiation of British higher education institutions and degrees differentiates the transitions to the service class more strongly than in Germany. Thus, for understanding transition patterns from higher education to work in comparative perspective, it is necessary to take into account the institutional structure of higher education systems. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables, and 14 notes.)

Vocational training and skills are playing an increasingly important role in the developed economies. However, both the vocational education structure and the underlying philosophy and culture of education and training vary from country to country. What is clear, though, is that employers play a crucial role in all cases; this paper explores the reasons why companies in different countries are willing to invest in initial vocational education and how they do so. The paper will focus on Great Britain and Germany as examples of a market-led model and a state-directed model, respectively. Interviews with employers in both countries show that, in Britain, initial vocational education is strongly task-related in most cases or else is seen as the employee's private, individual concern. In Germany, by contrast, a much broader range of initial vocational education is available and is viewed as an integral part of company culture.

Purpose: Though the notion of competence is common terminology in European VET policy at national and supra-national level, understandings vary widely, both across countries and within. The particular conceptions of competence adopted in the EQF are themselves problematic and the framework allows for a variety of interpretations. The purpose of this paper is to clarify those applied in the EQF and the vocational education and qualifications systems of particular European countries and to contribute to the development of a transnational understanding of the term, one which is compatible with a rapidly changing labour market. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on evidence from work funded by the Nuffield Foundation entitled "Cross-national Equivalence of Vocational Skills and Qualifications", the paper explores the various conceptions of competence in the EQF and the national systems: in particular in the sectors of construction, ICT and health: of England, Germany, France and The Netherlands. Findings: Interpretations are located on a continuum from the comprehensive occupational model traditionally found in many European countries to the task-focused model of the English NVQ system. Research limitations/implications: Much developmental work involving all stakeholders is necessary to arrive at a commonly agreed conception. A broad understanding of competence would relate to the potential of labour, itself determined through the occupational capacity embodied in the qualification. Practical implications: Zones of Mutual Trust need to be based on transnational categories of VET. Originality/value: The value of the paper is in seeking to go beyond identifying differences by developing transnational categories and suggesting the nature of Zones of Mutual Trust for implementing the EQF. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

This paper is a numerical exploration of the following. Assume, in the European Union context, that decision-makers want to spend more on higher education via higher tuition fees, but also want payments to be deferred and income-contingent. There are several possible ways to achieve this. First, ask graduates to repay a fixed amount each year if their current net income is above a certain threshold - income-contingent loans (ICL). Second, ask former students to repay a fixed proportion of their income - human capital contracts (HCC). What are the respective distributional properties of these policies, and how do they compare with traditional financing through income taxation? This paper shows that, irrespective of major variations between countries with different higher education, labor market and fiscal structures, with income taxation non-graduates pay more that 50% of the increased higher-education costs. It also shows that the HCC and ICL have vertical equity properties because non-graduates do not pay, but also because the income contingency principle on which they are based redistributes income among heterogeneous graduates. Finally, the paper shows that HCC are the best way to take account of graduates' ability to pay. It also reveals, however, that the ICL can be made to be almost as equitable. (Contains 4 figures, 7 tables, 27 notes, and 1 appendix.) [Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Belgian Federal Government.]

Purpose: The paper seeks first to present an overview of the corporate university landscape in Germany contrasting it with the US-American corporate university market and, second, to outline the development in Germany during the last 15 years and to have a look at future trends such as learning alliances. Design/methodology/approach: The comparison in the paper is based on empirical data of the largest corporate universities in the USA and Germany gathered by interviews with the heads of the institutions and by evaluations of data such as homepages, brochures, and presentations by the companies. In addition, reference is made to surveys and case studies published by other researchers. Findings: The paper works out major differences between Germany and the USA regarding the educational level, target groups, strategic directions, partnerships, alliances with external vendors, accreditation, focus on internal versus external job market, and organisation that can be led back to the stronger strategic orientation of German corporate universities. It presents the business model of a learning alliance as a potential solution to the major challenges German corporate universities are facing. Research limitations/implications: Research data being based on interviews and corporate data risk being biased due to marketing purposes. Future research should include internal observations and evaluations. Practical implications: The paper gives an example for a learning alliance in practice that could be of relevance for a larger number of institutions. Originality/value: The comparative study helps to understand the US-American and German corporate university markets as well as their specificities and investigates future developments. (Contains 7 figures.)

Although the current Labour government is committed to developing the UK as a high skills society, there is much confusion as what such a society might look like and from where it might draw its inspiration. Some academic commentators have also expressed the need for a clearer vision of the kind of society to which the UK might choose to head for under the banner of 'high skills'. In this paper, the authors discuss whether such a vision is needed and what, in their view, this vision might look like. The authors argue that Germany and Scandinavia offer the best 'actually existing' examples of high skill societies and consider whether the UK could move towards a northern European inspired high skills model. Having identified some of the obstacles currently blocking such a project, the paper discusses whether a vision is still needed and why academics must continue to debate what it means to build a high skills society in the UK.

In this paper, I assess labor market returns of a substantial skill upgrade: college enrollment of the vocationally trained, non-traditional students who do not have the formal entry requirement. Using propensity-score-adjusted regressions and the National Educational Panel Study, I find that these enrollees face high opportunity costs as they forgo earnings during the enrollment period. In the long-run, enrollees tend to obtain higher cumulative earnings than those who continue with a vocational-training-based career, but, there is a large degree of uncertainty. On the positive side, enrollees attain jobs with a higher reputation in society, hinting at sizable non-monetary returns.

By analysing the childcaring experiences of female skilled workers from South Korea (hereafter, Korea) in Germany, this paper maintains that the challenges in labour market participation for highly skilled women, and especially those with children, should be understood in the context of their encounters with similar and different care and employment regimes between their home and host countries. On the theoretical level, this research confirms the argument that the migration of highly skilled workers should be contextualized not from a neoclassical perspective in which the maximization of economic profits takes priority, but from an institutional point of view in which social and cultural norms, practices, and policies in both the home and host societies are taken into consideration. Specifically, through a series of in-depth interviews conducted with skilled female migrants from Korea, this paper highlights the significance of taking the function of similar and different caring and employment regimes into account in explaining the challenges faced by highly skilled migrant women in labour market participation. On the empirical level, this paper sheds light on the migration experiences of skilled women from Asia as well as the (dis)integration processes of newcomers from third-national countries in Germany, with a focus on female migrants from Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve qualitative case studies in German and Canadian hospitals and IT companies were used in this mixed-methods study analysing the labour market outcomes of immigrants. The reported case studies investigate the immigrants' recognition, integration process and the usability of foreign qualifications, skills and work experiences in the labour market. Furthermore, the strategies and rationales of employers and employees within the recruiting process are analysed. Here, the focus lies on the transferability and obstacles of cultural and social capital across country borders as well as the relevant framework conditions. This paper refers to Bourdieu's approach towards different types of capital as well as the rational choice theory. The results demonstrate that immigrants in both countries face more obstacles accessing the labour market within the health sector than within the IT sector. The context of the recruiting situation strongly affects the strategies and behaviour of the employers or the recruiters. Within these sector- and country-specific confines, individual factors determine the immigrants' labour market success. Furthermore, the sector and the country affect the relevance of each individual factor in the recruiting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following an interpretative approach this paper investigates the role of knowledge orders, understood as settings which attribute relevance to specific expertise. The changing patterns of incorporation of expertise in policy formulation as well as public justification are analysed for German and British labour market policy. From a comparative perspective it can be observed that the processes of transformation differ with regard to relevant drivers and measures. In both cases approaches of evidence-based policy making have gained importance. Nevertheless we argue that a changing knowledge order does not necessarily affect policy formulation and public justification in analogous ways.

Ample evidence indicates that a person's human capital is important for success on the labor market in terms of both wages and employment prospects. However, unlike the efforts to identify the impact of school attainment on labor-market outcomes, the literature on returns to cognitive skills has not yet provided convincing evidence that the estimated returns can be causally interpreted. Using the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, this paper explores several approaches that aim to address potential threats to causal identification of returns to skills, in terms of both higher wages and better employment chances. We address measurement error by exploiting the fact that PIAAC measures skills in several domains. Furthermore, we estimate instrumental-variable models that use skill variation stemming from school attainment and parental education to circumvent reverse causation. Results show a strikingly similar pattern across the diverse set of countries in our sample. In fact, the instrumental-variable estimates are consistently larger than those found in standard least-squares estimations. The same is true in two "natural experiments," one of which exploits variation in skills from changes in compulsory-schooling laws across U.S. states. The other one identifies technologically induced variation in broadband Internet availability that gives rise to variation in ICT skills across German municipalities. Together, the results suggest that least-squares estimates may provide a lower bound of the true returns to skills in the labor market.

Motivated by discussions of skill mismatches on local German vocational educational and training (VET) markets, this paper analyses how occupational segments of VET entry of individuals with lower and intermediate secondary school degree relate to local labor market characteristics. The econometric analysis applies data from a survey conducted with 9th graders within the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Considering opportunity structures and the local competition for training positions, we find that the match between occupations' skill demands and individuals' abilities tends to be specifically close in diverse and competitive urban labor markets. In non-competitive peripheral labor markets, in contrast, graduates with lower school certificates seem to have a higher likelihood of entering VET in segments that are specifically attractive for graduates with upper secondary school degree. The results on the allocation of abilities and the weight of preferences under different labor market conditions have different welfare implications from an individual, regional and general economic perspective.

In this paper, the authors seek to disentangle what they see as contradictory uses of the term "professionalisation" with reference to adult educator development and training (AEDT). They set out to distinguish "professionalisation" from "professionalism," and to identify the locus of control of AEDT in Germany, the UK and India. In these three countries, all of which have a long tradition of adult education, "professionalisation" and "professionalism" are used interchangeably to describe conflicting purposes. The authors aim to identify and critically explore the organisations and policies which control and support AEDT in their own countries using American sociologist Eliot Freidson's "third logic" model, and drawing on his juxtaposition of "professions," "the market" and "bureaucracy." Applying Freidson's models to the organisations highlights the role of bureaucracy and that where adult education is concerned, national governments, the European Union and aid organisations not only serve bureaucracy but also support the market rather than operating separately from it. While the term "professionalisation" continues to be used to mean professional development, either by adult educators and representative organisations (as in the UK) or by organisations acting on their behalf (as in Germany and India), it is also used to denote regulation and standardisation issuing from bureaucratic institutions and adult education provider organisations in the interests of the market. The authors suggest that Freidson's model provides a useful tool for adult educators in other countries to reflect on their professional position and to engage in the development of their own professional standards, both in their own interests and in the interests of those they educate.

An important driver of change in work, employment and skills is European Union policy aims of sustainable economic growth and the cultivation of a green economy. Part of the latter--which is supported by increasing environmental regulation--focuses on the development of a "green skills agenda," which involves the "greening" of existing occupations as well as meeting the skill needs of new environmental sectors and occupations. In this paper, we compare attempts to 'green' work and skills through an examination of engineering apprenticeships within the German and British steel industries. We argue that efforts to "green" skills are taking place at varying degrees of intensity, mostly because of variations in institutional context. The evidence we present suggests that implementation of change is much more dynamic in the context of Coordinated Market Economies such as Germany, where development is shaped by robust VET frameworks and wider processes of environmental innovation. In contrast, within Liberal Market Economies such as the UK, there are significant barriers to the vision for and investments in skills generally, as well as those necessary for greening the labour process, with an extant development paradigm that is driven by short-term benefits and a limited focus on environmental compliance.

In this paper, we estimate the causal effects of a set of active labor market programs for male unemployed refugees on welfare who entered Germany between, 2013 and September, 2016. Using rich administrative data, we employ covariate balancing propensity scores combined with inverse probability weighting to estimate effects up to 33 months after the start of treatment. Our results show that relatively short-term training in the form of Schemes by Providers and In-Firm Training, as well as longer-term Further Vocational Training programs have a positive impact on both the employment chances as well as labor market earnings of refugees in the medium run. So-called "One Euro Jobs", a public employment program, does not yield positive effects on employment or earnings. Sensitivity analyses confirm that our results are unlikely to be driven by unobserved confounding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of higher education and the graduate labour markets in selected European countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) in the context of the expectations of graduates and prospective employers, and respective recruitment and selection practices. Expectations of graduating students from a number of European collaborating universities are sought and analysed in order to find out about a match between the knowledge and skills of graduates and the needs of European employers. The study examines the process of graduate recruitment, employee and employer expectations, and the role of higher education institutions in meeting such expectations. Primary data was gathered from 252 employers and 485 final year (graduating) students through the use of questionnaires. The analysis of the data collected has revealed different approaches to but similar methods of graduate recruitment between the four countries. Despite the current differences in higher education systems and labour market trends, the expectations of employers and graduating students are more similar than different. It is concluded that EU graduates will have good employment prospects in an integrated labour market.

This paper analyzes the effects of German labor market reforms on the competitiveness and performance of the German economy. The contribution starts with giving some background information on the rationale behind the reforms and stresses the specific structure of the German economy. We then describe the salient effects of the reforms for employment and labor market integration. Finally, the dark side of the reforms, i.e., labor market segmentation and wage inequality, are addressed, which leads to the general question of how the reforms can be reconciled with the notion of social justice.

The standing of vocational education is salient for how it is perceived by those who sponsor, participate in and work within it and how its provisions are supported and administered. Yet, this standing continues to be intractably low, compared with other education sectors, more so in some countries than others. The consequences for this low standing can be profound. Serially, moreover, it has been the voices and sentiments of powerful others (e.g. aristocrats, theocrats, bureaucrats and academics) that have long been privileged in discourses about the standing of occupations and their preparation. In perhaps most instances, this privileging has and continues to come at a cost to the standing, processes of and goals for this important educational sector. Indeed, the legacies of earlier sentiments about and conceptions of different kinds of occupations and their preparation are now deeply embedded in societal discourses and variously sustain and constrain the standing of vocational education. At its strongest, concepts such as the Berufs concept in the German speaking world does much to sustain and elevate vocational education. Elsewhere, this lowly standing generates constraints that comprise efforts to control and micro-manage those who teach and learn. Adopting a historical approach, this paper offers a brief and partial account of how, across time, sentiments of powerful others have shaped the standing of vocational education and its proposes and practices, often for purposes of power and control. Instead, it is proposed that for vocational education to realise it purposes necessarily requires it to be informed by and directed more by the interests of those learning about--teaching and practice--these occupations. In addition, the need for societally based (i.e. governmental) imperatives to ameliorate the long-standing consequences of these sentiments for vocational education is proposed.

In this paper, we consider the issue of the under-representation of young people from minority ethnic/migrant backgrounds in apprenticeships in England and Germany. Whilst there are many studies on apprenticeships in England and Germany, few focus on under-representation or discrimination, even fewer on ethnic under-representation, and there are no comparative studies of the topic. We review the existing literature and drawing on Critical Race Theory, we argue that most studies on apprenticeships and ethnicity tend to confirm rather than challenge stereotypes of these minority groups, and to view young people as autonomous agents able to make (relatively) free choices. We argue that connections should be made between ethnic under-representation and studies of the racial segmentation of the labour market. Drawing on these studies of the labour market, we suggest, innovatively but perhaps somewhat controversially, that it is likely that racialised norms shape expectations of the worker and migrant worker, and of who fits where in the labour markets and vocational training systems. Further, we argue that this challenges popular notions of what constitutes career 'choices' on the part of young people.

This paper examines trends in school-to-work transitions of young men and women with lower and higher secondary education in West Germany between 1984 and 2005. This period was marked by an increase in young women's educational attainment and a continuous growth of the service sector. We assume that both developments have benefited women more than men in terms of smooth labour market integration. Results from discrete event history analyses show that in recent years women indeed found their first job faster than men. However, this is not mainly due to an improvement in young women's chances to enter employment, but to deteriorating employment prospects of men, in particular of unskilled men. (Contains 6 figures, 1 table, and 8 notes.)

Adult education institutions face a variety of challenges in "migration societies". This paper first analyses the marginal adoption of the topic by researchers in a German-speaking context and points out the dominance of a target group approach in the past. To open up alternative perspectives, I will discuss challenges for adult education in migration societies by referring to an empirical study which explored the labour market situation of highly skilled immigrants in Austria. The analysis focused on the question of how adult education/vocational training can strengthen the agency of learners under certain social conditions in terms of "recognition". The theoretical framework developed in this research project interrelates work from the philosopher Axel Honneth with those from Pierre Bourdieu as well as with theories of (institutional) discrimination and racism. Finally, challenges for institutions active in adult education and professional qualifications are named through defining adult education as a context for, and practice of, recognition.

Using data on German university graduates, this paper analyzes wage differentials by field of study at labor market entry and five to six years later. At both points of time, graduates from arts/humanities have lower average monthly wages compared to other fields. Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions show that these wage differentials can be explained largely by different job and firm characteristics rather than by individual or study-related characteristics. We also find evidence that the less favorable job and firm characteristics of arts/humanities graduates at labor market entry will persist for (at least) the next five to six years. (Contains 7 tables and 11 notes.)

Comparative studies describing the transition from higher education to work have often simplified the complex transition processes involved. In this paper we extend previous research by taking into account several steps that comprise labor market entry, e.g., recurrent education leading to more than one instance of labor market entry. By comparing Germany and the United States we also examine how the tertiary education systems influence these transitions via the mode of stratification (parallel tracks in Germany vs. consecutive tracks in the US), the coordination mechanism (state-controlled vs. market-based) and the degree of standardization in educational programs. In our empirical analyses using large-scale longitudinal survey data we find that transitions in the US are less standardized and regulated than in Germany. Furthermore, differences between students from lower- and higher-tier institutions are less marked than expected, both within and between the two countries.

Aggregate unemployment may affect individual returns to education through qualification-specific responses in participation and wage bargaining. This paper shows that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour market changes with respect to their jobs but they encounter larger wage changes than less skilled employees. We use representative individual data and panel variation in unemployment between German regions and employee groups. We demonstrate that our results are robust with respect to aggregation bias, time lags and potential endogeneity of the unemployment variable. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

Education serves many valuable social functions. Among these functions are the development of skills among students that can be used later in the labor market, the passing of societal history and culture from one generation to the next, and the inculcation of important societal norms and values so students have the opportunity of becoming knowledgeable participants in the larger social system. The education system is society's primary socializing agent in attempting to integrate children into the larger social system. In many societies, the effectiveness of education as a socializing agent has been an issue, especially in those social systems characterized by substantial diversity. One diversity issue that places a significant amount of stress on the socializing and integrating function of education is immigrant status. The case of the Turkish population in Germany provides an excellent opportunity to study the integration effects of education because they have a relatively recent history in Germany. In addition, data are available to see how well the Turkish population is embedded in the larger social system and explore the specific role played by the German educational system in their integration. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between education and one dimension of integration: homeland identity. The authors examine, at a very fundamental level, the role education has taken in integrating Turks in Germany. In examining this relationship, the authors look at one measure of integration (homeland identity) among a sample of Turks who were educated in Turkey or in Germany. Results from the analysis indicate that Turks are not well integrated, and such lack of full integration leads to some ambiguity about homeland identity, particularly among Turks educated in Germany. While there is a small likelihood that Turks educated in Germany will identify with Germany rather than Turkey, there is no consistent consensus or dependency among this group in their views. The latter finding suggests some variability in the hold the community has on Turkish homeland identity. (Contains 5 figures, 2 tables and 11 notes.)

From the early 1990s until 2005 the unemployment rate rose in Germany from 7.3 to 11.7%. While the unemployment rate reached its peak in 2005, it decreased steadily in the following years. The fourth stage of the German labor market reform (Hartz IV) was implemented in 2005 with the intent to cut the unemployment rate. This paper investigates the employment and welfare effects of the Hartz IV reform. Moreover, I am interested in the employment impact of German labor market reform due the rise of the East, which is the productivity increase in Germany and Eastern Europe that has fostered joint fast-growing trade. The focus lies on the national and county level (including 402 counties). As the effects on regional labor markets differ and take time, the paper builds on the dynamic and spatial trade model of Caliendo et al. (2019). I find that the Hartz IV reform is responsible for a 25% drop in unemployment, with a particular impact on eastern German counties. The rise of the East leads to an additional positive contribution to the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing conditions of academic and scientific labour markets challenge the current conceptual thinking about the mechanisms of academic promotion, selection and recruitment. This paper explores the models of academic promotion and recruitment of professors in a comparative perspective using the examples of Poland and Germany, and addresses the challenges faced by the reformers in both countries. It focuses on promotion, selection and recruitment processes--their mechanisms, rationale and potential for change and then critically reviews arguments used in the discussions on reforming the models of academic careers, and in particular the abolishment of habilitation.