Seit Beginn des Bundes-Investitionsprogramms "Zukunft Bildung und Betreuung" (IZBB) im Jahr 2003 hat sich der Anteil der Grundschulkinder, die ganztägig eine Schule besuchen, mehr als vervierfacht. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht der vorliegende Beitrag zum einen, welche demografischen und sozioökonomischen Merkmale Kinder aufweisen, die ganztägige Schulangebote nutzen. Zum anderen wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich die Zusammensetzung dieser Grundschüler im Vergleich zu Grundschülern, die keine ganztägigen Schulangebote nutzen, mit dem Ausbau der Ganztagsschule verändert hat. Ist über die Zeit eine Konvergenz oder eine Divergenz in den gruppenspezifischen Nutzermerkmalen zu beobachten? Für diese Untersuchungen werden Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) und der Zusatzstudie "Familien in Deutschland" (FiD) verwendet, die Vergleiche der gruppenspezifischen Teilnahme vor und nach dem Ausbau der Ganztagsschule zulassen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich in Westdeutschland Nichtteilnehmer und Teilnehmer an ganztägigen Schulangeboten im Hinblick auf sozioökonomische Merkmale, wie das Einkommen, annähern, es also diesbezüglich zu einer Konvergenz kommt. In Ostdeutschland findet hingegen eine Konvergenz bei Merkmalen der Haushaltsstruktur statt. Generell gibt es wenig Evidenz für eine Divergenz. Since the launch of the public investment program 'Future Education and Care' (IZBB) in 2003 the share of primary school aged children participating in all-day schooling in Germany has more than quadrupled. Against this backdrop, this study analyzes, the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics which are possibly related to a higher probability of attendance. Moreover, it analyzes changes in the composition of students participating in all-day schooling. Has there been rather a convergence or a divergence in the characteristics of participants and non-participants over time? Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the additional survey "Families in Germany" (FiD), our results show that in West Germany all-day school participants have become more similar according to their socioeconomic characteristics (in particular income), hence supporting the convergence hypothesis. In East Germany our findings also provide evidence for convergence. In contrast to West Germany, however, convergence applies to characteristics related to the household structure. Overall, there is no indication for divergence over time.

This study analyzes the effect of all-day (AD) primary school programs on maternal labor supply. To account for AD school selectivity and selection into AD primary school programs I estimate bivariate probit models. To identify these models I exploit variation in the allocation of investments to AD primary schools across time and counties. This variation results from the public investment program "Future Education and Care" (IZBB) which was introduced by the German federal government in 2003. My results indicate for mothers with primary school-aged children in Germany (excluding Bavaria) a significantly positive effect of AD primary school programs on labor supply at the extensive margin. On average, mothers who make use of AD primary school programs are 26 ppts more likely to be employed than mothers who do not make use of these programs. This large effect is robust to alternative specifications and estimation methods and mainly concentrated in states with AD primary school student shares of up to 20%. On the contrary, there is no evidence for an impact of these programs on maternal labor supply at the intensive margin (full-time vs. part-time).

Background Decomposing health care spending by disease, type of care, age, and sex can lead to a better understanding of the drivers of health care spending. But the lack of diagnostic coding in outpatient care often precludes a decomposition by disease. Yet, health insurance claims data hold a variety of diagnostic clues that may be used to identify diseases. Methods In this study, we decompose total outpatient care spending in Switzerland by age, sex, service type, and 42 exhaustive and mutually exclusive diseases according to the Global Burden of Disease classification. Using data of a large health insurance provider, we identify diseases based on diagnostic clues. These clues include type of medication, inpatient treatment, physician specialization, and disease specific outpatient treatments and examinations. We determine disease-specific spending by direct (clues-based) and indirect (regression-based) spending assignment. Results Our results suggest a high precision of disease identification for many diseases. Overall, 81% of outpatient spending can be assigned to diseases, mostly based on indirect assignment using regression. Outpatient spending is highest for musculoskeletal disorders (19.2%), followed by mental and substance use disorders (12.0%), sense organ diseases (8.7%) and cardiovascular diseases (8.6%). Neoplasms account for 7.3% of outpatient spending. Conclusions Our study shows the potential of health insurance claims data in identifying diseases when no diagnostic coding is available. These disease-specific spending estimates may inform Swiss health policies in cost containment and priority setting.

Human longevity is rising rapidly all over the world, but are longer lives more satisfied lives? This study suggests that the answer might be no. Despite a substantial increase in months of satisfying life, people’s overall life satisfaction declined between 1985 and 2011 in West Germany due to substantial losses of life satisfaction in old age. When compared to 1985, in 2011, elderly West Germans were, on average, much less satisfied throughout their last five years of life. Moreover, they spent a larger proportion of their remaining lifetime in states of dissatisfaction, on average. Two important mechanisms that contributed to this satisfaction decline were health and social isolation. Using a broad variety of sensitivity tests, I show that these results are robust to a large set of alternative explanations.