The Lower Saxony Basin (LSB) in northwest Germany is one of the oldest oil-producing basins in the world, where the first production well was drilled in 1864. It has been intensively investigated with respect to its hydrocarbon potential and can be regarded as a well-studied example of a sedimentary basin that experienced strong inversion and uplift. Oil and gas source rocks of economic importance include Upper Carboniferous coals as well as Jurassic (Toarcian Posidonia Shale) and Cretaceous (Berriasian/Wealden) shales. We have developed a fully integrated 3D high-resolution numerical petroleum systems model incorporating the LSB, and parts of the Pompeckj Block in the north as well as the M€ unsterland Basin in the south. Aside from temperature and maturity modeling calibrated by a large amount of vitrinite reflectance and downhole temperature data, we also investigated petroleum generation and accumulation with special emphasis on the shale gas potential of the Jurassic Posidonia Shale.

Using linked employer-employee data for West Germany, I investigate the role of growing wage differentials between firms in the slowdown of gender wage convergence since the 1990s. The results show that two factors are at play: first, high-wage firms experience higher wage growth and employ disproportionately more men, and second, male firm premiums grow faster than female premiums in the same firms. These developments were catalyzed by a decline of union coverage, coupled with more firm-specific wage setting in collective bargaining agreements. Taken together, these conditions prevented the gender gap from narrowing by approximately 15 percent between the 1990s and 2000s. (JEL J16, J51, J31, J71)

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Sedimentary basins in NW-Germany and the Netherlands represent potential targets for shale gas exploration in Europe due to the presence of Cretaceous (Wealden) and Jurassic (Posidonia) marlstones/shales as well as various Carboniferous black shales. In order to assess the regional shale gas prospectivity of this area, a 3D high-resolution petroleum system model has been compiled and used to reconstruct the source-rock maturation based on calibrated burial and thermal histories. Different basal heat flow scenarios and accordingly, different high-resolution scenarios of erosional amount distribution were constructed, incorporating all major uplift events that affected the study area. The model delivers an independent 3D reappraisal of the tectonic and thermal history that controlled the differential geodynamic evolution and provides a high-resolution image of the maturity distribution and evolution throughout the study area and the different basins. Pressure, temperature and TOCdependent gas storage capacity and gas contents of the Posidonia Shale and Wealden were calculated based on experimentally derived Langmuir sorption parameters and newly compiled source-rock thickness maps indicating shale gas potential of the Lower Saxony Basin, southern Gifhorn Trough and West Netherlands Basin.

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