In this study gender differentials in professional status attainment are analyzed. In the theoretical literature, unequal treatment of females is often rationalized by their higher probability of quitting. To test this hypothesis empirically we use data from the Austrian microcensus and find that neither the risk of childbearing nor different productive characteristics can explain the crowding of females in lower hierarchical positions. Females have to fulfill higher ability standards to be promoted; work experience is not rewarded in the same manner as it is for men.

Using information on job changes and search behavior of workers and controlling for endogenousnmobility we study firm-size wage differentials in Switzerland. We find that the observed crosssectionalnfirm size premium cannot be explained exclusively by worker heterogeneity. Almost 50n% of the cross-section differential is a firm-size effect.

An important component of the long‐run cost of a war is the loss of human capital suffered by school‐age children who receive less education. Austrian and German individuals who were 10 years old during the conflict, or were more directly involved through their parents, received less education than comparable individuals from nonwar countries, such as Switzerland and Sweden. We also show that these individuals experienced a sizable earnings loss some 40 years after the war, which can be attributed to the educational loss caused by the conflict. The implied consequences in terms of gross domestic product loss are calculated.

A Simple Mechanism for the Efficient Provision of Public Goods: Experimental Evidence by Josef Falkinger, Ernst Fehr, Simon Gächter and Rudolf Winter-Ember. Published in volume 90, issue 1, pages 247-264 of American Economic Review, March 2000

We show that downsizing has substantial negative effects on the health of workers who remain in the firm. We study mass layoff (ML) survivors in Austria, using workers who survive a ML themselves, but a few years in the future, as a control group. Based on high-quality administrative data, we find evidence that downsizing has persistent effects on mental and physical health, and that these effects can be explained by workers fearing for their own jobs. We also show that health effects due to downsizing imply nonnegligible costs for firms.