JBNST - Vol. 240/5 - 2020

This paper shows how the German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) determines Germany’s potential output, and compares the results with those of the European Commission. The approach of the European Commission is a natural benchmark, as it provides the basis for the deficit and debt rules of the European Union. In comparison with the European Commission’s method, the GCEE’s method places greater emphasis on demographic factors in estimating labour input. Additionally, both approaches differ regarding how they estimate the structural unemployment rate and total factor productivity. Finally, this paper discusses the limitations of, and the different options for estimating potential output.

The authors analyze the correlations between students’ time allocation and school performance in terms of grades and satisfaction with their own performance in math, German, first foreign language, and overall. They address the heterogeneity between three important extracurricular activities (student jobs, sports and music participation) and the heterogeneity within each activity by accounting for different types and participation length of an activity. The used cross-sectional survey data of 3388 students, who are about 17?years old and enrolled in a German secondary school, indeed reveal substantial heterogeneity between and within the activities. The empirical analysis is accompanied by an extensive survey of the empirical literature about the association between student jobs, sports, and music participation and school performance.

Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel, the correlation between the body mass index, health, earnings and life satisfaction is analysed by gender. The previous literature has found no consistent results. This might have several reasons. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the gender-specific role of weight in single equation, piecewise and simultaneous equations models. We ask whether this distinction is important for the degree of association between health, earnings, satisfaction and body weight. In our context, piecewise modelling means a separate inspection of weight coefficients for under- and overweight people, allowing the detection of non-linear influences. As a benchmark, we begin our estimations under the assumption that the association between health, earnings, satisfaction, and weight is the same for under- and overweight people, and that there are no jointly dependent influences between our three outcome variables. The basic results are: health worsens, income declines and satisfaction is poorer with higher body mass index. If the association with weight is separately determined for over- and underweight people, the estimates show striking differences between overweight men and women. Underweight women earn more and overweight less than others. For normal-weight men the income is on average higher than for over- and underweight men but this difference is insignificant. When matching and instrumental variables procedures are applied, the health outcome for overweight people matches that of independent and unmatched estimates. Stronger positive effects on health are found for underweight women. No clear-cut advantages in income of overweight women can be found. Underweight women and especially underweight men tend to be less happy. For overweight men this influence is ambiguous but more speaks in favour of a lesser level of satisfaction. Overweight women seem to be happier.