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In the absence of effective vaccination, mass testing and quarantining of positive cases and their contacts could help to mitigate pandemics and allow economies to stay open. We investigate the effects of repeated mass testing on the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, using data from the first ever nationwide rapid antigen testing implemented in Slovakia in autumn 2020. After the first round of testing, only districts above an ex ante unknown threshold of test positivity were re-tested. Comparing districts above and below the threshold, we provide evidence that repeated mass antigen testing can temporarily reduce the number of new infections. Our results suggest that mass testing coupled with the quarantining of positive cases and their contacts could be an effective tool in mitigating pandemics. For lasting effects, re-testing at regular intervals would likely be necessary.

We provide comprehensive evidence on the consequences of automation risk on the career of unemployed workers and the mitigating role of labor market training. Using almost two decades of administrative data for Austria, we find that a higher risk of automation reduces the job finding probability; a problem which has increased over the past years. This development is associated with increasing re-employment wages and job stability. We also present new aspects of public training in times of technological progress. Provided training counteracts the negative impact of automation on the job finding probability. Its efficiency has declined over the past years, however.

I investigate the impact of parental unemployment on children's educational attainment and long-run labor market outcomes in Austria. I find that parental unemployment shortly before an important educational decision by parents for their children lowers a child's probability of holding a university degree by more than 5 percentage points. I do not find that income is affected at the beginning of a child's labor market career along the distribution, but I find a gradual deterioration later on. A substantial share of these long-term losses can be explained by the lower parental investment decision. My results emphasize the intergenerational and longlasting consequences of parental unemployment. Ich untersuche die Auswirkungen elterlicher Arbeitslosigkeit auf das Bildungsniveau und den langfristigen Arbeitsmarkerfolg von Kindern. Es zeigt sich, dass elterliche Arbeitslosigkeit kurz vor einer wichtigen Bildungsentscheidung der Eltern für ihre Kinder die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ein Kind einen Hochschulabschluss erlangt, um mehr als 5 Prozentpunkte verringert. Elterliche Arbeitslosigkeit hat keine Auswirkungen auf das Einkommen der Kinder zu Beginn ihrer Arbeitsmarktkarriere, aber ich finde zunehmende und langfristige Einkommensverluste. Ein wesentlicher Teil dieser langfristigen Verluste lassen sich durch eine geringere Investitionsentscheidung der Eltern erklären. Meine Ergebnisse unterstreichen die generationsübergreifenden und langfristigen Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit.

The labor supply effects of becoming a grandmother are not well established in the empirical literature. We estimate the effect of becoming a grandmother on the labor supply decision of older workers. Under the assumption that grandmothers cannot predict the exact date of conception of their grandchild, we identify the effect of the first grandchild on employment (extensive margin). Our Timing-of-Events approach shows that having a first grandchild increases the probability of leaving prematurely the labor market. This effect is stronger when informal childcare is more valuable to the mother. To estimate the effect of an additional grandchild (intensive margin), we assume that the incidence of a twin birth among the third generation is not correlated with unobserved determinants of the grandmother's labor supply (first generation). Our respective instrumental variable estimations show a significant effect of further grandchildren. Our results highlight the important influence of the extended family on the decisions of older workers and point to mediating effects of different institutional settings.

In this paper we investigate the effect of stress on the survival probability using a child’s death as the triggering event. Employing a propensity score weighted Kaplan-Meier estimator, we are able to explore the associated time pattern of grief without imposing assumptions on the underlying duration process. We find a non-monotonic relationship between time and relative survival rates: decreasing for 13 years after the event and slowly reversing afterward. However, even 19 years after the event bereaved parents have significantly lower survival probabilities compared to the hypothetical case, that the event had not occurred. Investigating the main reason for this development, our results indicate that bereaved parents have a higher probability of dying from natural causes, especially circulatory diseases. Interestingly, our results reveal that bereavement has a stronger impact on fathers, while we find only modest evidence for mothers. This is a novel and surprising finding as males are in general regarded as more stress resilient than females. However, this research shows that this perception is not true.