Publications of the Research Group Inequality and Public Policy

  1. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 25-035 // 2025

    Cohabitation, Child Development, and College Costs

    Why do US college-educated couples with children marry at higher rates than those without a college degree? We argue that investing in children is more valuable for college-educated couples, who are more likely…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 25-033 // 2025

    Child Penalty Estimation and Mothers’ Age at First Birth

    We show that the widespread approach to estimate the career costs of motherhood – so called “child penalties” – is prone to produce biased results, as it pools first-time mothers of all ages without accounting…

  3. Discussion and Working Paper // 2025

    Child Penalty Estimation and Mothers' Age at First Birth

    We show that the widespread approach to estimate the career costs of motherhood -- so-called “child penalties” -- is prone to produce biased results, as it pools first-time mothers of all ages without accounting…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 25-027 // 2025

    The Effect of Airbnb on Housing Prices: Evidence from the 2017 Solar Eclipse

    This study estimates the causal impact of Airbnb expansion on local housing prices by exploiting the 2017 total solar eclipse as a natural experiment. The eclipse’s path of totality created a exogenous temporary…

  5. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 25-013 // 2025

    The Effect of Taxes on CEO Performance

    In this paper, we investigate the effect of higher personal income taxes on CEO and firm performance in publicly traded US firms. In response to higher taxes on compensation, CEOs are less likely to reach…