Cognitive and brain aging is strongly influenced by everyday settings such as work demands. Long-term exposure to low job complexity, for instance, has detrimental effects on cognitive functioning ...and regional gray matter (GM) volume. Brain and cognition, however, are also characterized by plasticity. We postulate that the experience of novelty (at work) is one important trigger of plasticity. We investigated the cumulative effect of recurrent exposure to work-task changes (WTC) at low levels of job complexity on GM volume and cognitive functioning of middle-aged production workers across a time window of 17 years. In a case-control study, we found that amount of WTC was associated with better processing speed and working memory as well as with more GM volume in brain regions that have been associated with learning and that show pronounced age-related decline. Recurrent novelty at work may serve as an '
' intervention that helps counteracting debilitating long-term effects of low job complexity.
"The study presents a cartographic overview of the offering of and demand for adult education in Germany. The authors have developed indicators from a variety of data sources, which allow an ...extensive and detailed view of the participation in adult education. With a view of the regions as reference frame, trend influences are developed and factors for adult education advantages and disadvantages are made visible. Some regions show abnormalities in the adult education behaviour. Results of regional case studies show that there are conductive as well as inhibiting factors for adult education opportunities. Here, the differences in adult education behaviour with regards to regionally varying levels and offers of further education become apparent."
This collection addresses the potential of the European Social Charter to promote and safeguard social rights in Europe. Drawing on the expertise of the ETUI Transnational Trade Union Rights expert ...network from across Europe, it provides a comprehensive commentary on these fundamental rights. Taking a two part approach, it offers an in-depth legal analysis of the European Social Charter as a new social constitution for Europe, investigating first the potential of the general legal frame in which the Charter is embedded. In the second phase a series of social rights which are related to the employment relation are examined in particular in light of the jurisprudence of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), to demonstrate the crucial but difficult role of the Charter's supervisory bodies to secure the respect and promotion of social rights and national level, bearing in mind the reciprocal influence of other international social rights instruments. This examination is timely, given the pressure exerted on those rights during the recent period of economic crisis. Furthermore, in the light of the predominantly economic vision of Europe, such analysis is crucial. The collection is aimed at stimulating academic scrutiny and raising awareness amongst practitioners and trade unions about this important and equally necessary anchor of the social dimension of Europe in legal and political practice.
This article analyses women's retirement income in the context of two distinct welfare states. In addition to women's employment history, we consider their marital history over the life course as an ...important determinant of retirement income. We use longitudinal data for women born between 1930 and 1940 from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study. The results shed light on the mechanisms through which welfare states transmit gender inequality over the life course into retirement. In both countries, single women have higher retirement income than continuously married women. But there are also significant cross-country differences. In the corporatist-conservative German welfare state, marriage over the life course leads to greater dependence on a male breadwinner in retirement than in the liberal British welfare state.
Who is overeducated and why? Boll, Christina; Leppin, Julian Sebastian; Schömann, Klaus
Education economics,
12/2016, Letnik:
24, Številka:
5/6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Overeducation potentially signals a productivity loss. With Socio-Economic Panel data from 1984 to 2011 we identify drivers of educational mismatch for East and West medium and highly educated ...Germans. Addressing measurement error, state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity, we run dynamic mixed multinomial logit models for three different measures of educational mismatch. We find that overeducation is mainly state dependent. Results largely hinge on the selected specification. Yet, robust results are that employment experience decreases and past unemployment increases the mismatch risk. An employer change seldomly serves as a suitable escape strategy, nor does a dual qualification save graduates from entering overeducation.
This paper takes a comparative approach to the topic of work time and health, asking whether weekly work hours matter for mental health. We hypothesize that these relationships differ within the ...United States and Germany, given the more regulated work time environments within Germany and the greater incentives to work long hours in the United States. We further hypothesize that German women will experience greatest penalties to long hours. We use data from the German Socioeconomic Panel and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine hours effects on mental health score at midlife. The results support our initial hypothesis. In Germany, longer work time is associated with worse mental health, while in the United States, as seen in previous research, the associations are more complex. Our results do not show greater mental health penalties for German women and suggest instead a selection effect into work hours operating by gender.
Es wird für Westdeutschland untersucht, ob sowohl der intergenerationale Abstieg als auch der intergenerationale Statuserhalt Beweggründe für berufliche Weiterbildung sind. Des Weiteren wird ...untersucht, ob mit beruflicher Weiterbildung ein intergenerationaler Abstieg ausgeglichen oder das Risiko für intergenerationale Abwärtsmobilität minimiert werden kann. Mit Längsschnittdaten der Deutschen Lebensverlaufsstudie finden sich für westdeutsche Frauen und Männer in fünf aufeinander folgenden Geburtskohorten im Zeitraum von 1949 bis 1999 Indizien dafür, dass das Statuserhaltmotiv ein Weiterbildungsmotiv für Personen sein könnte, die einen intergenerationalen Statusverlust erfahren haben. Mit Weiterbildungsanstrengungen können im weiteren Berufsverlauf intergenerationale Abstiege ausgeglichen werden. Ferner haben statuskonsistente Teilnehmer geringere Risiken für einen intergenerationalen Abstieg als Nichtteilnehmer. Berufliche Weiterbildung hat statusreproduzierende Wirkungen im Berufsverlauf.
Based on a life course perspective, this paper explores whether intergenerational status decline initiates employees’ participation in further vocational training. Additionally, it investigates whether further training compensates for status decline across generations and whether it contributes to decreasing the risk of such decline in the course of an occupational career. Results based on the German Life History Study of West German women and men from several birth cohorts observed between 1949 and 1999 indicate that status maintenance may be an important motivation for individuals who have experienced intergenerational status decline. By means of further training, these persons are able to compensate for downward mobility. Status consistent participants who undertake further training are more likely to be able to reduce the risk of intergenerational status decline than non-participants. Further vocational training supports status maintenance across generations.
Based on a life course perspective, this paper explores whether intergenerational status decline initiates employees' participation in further vocational training. Additionally, it investigates ...whether further training compensates for status decline across generations and whether it contributes to decreasing the risk of such decline in the course of an occupational career. Results based on the German Life History Study of West German women and men from several birth cohorts observed between 1949 and 1999 indicate that status maintenance may be an important motivation for individuals who have experienced intergenerational status decline. By means of further training, these persons are able to compensate for downward mobility. Status consistent participants who undertake further training are more likely to be able to reduce the risk of intergenerational status decline than non-participants. Further vocational training supports status maintenance across generations.
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