Steckenleiter, CarinaCarinaSteckenleiter2023-04-132023-04-132020-02-17https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/112407This thesis combines five essays in the areas of Labor and Sports Economics. While the individual parts address quite different research questions, all chapters aim to identify causal effects. The first chapter investigates effects of vocational training for women on partner choice and labor market outcomes in a society with traditional gender roles. Chapter 2 and 3 study effects of gender imbalances caused by World War II on fertility and labor markets in Germany. The last two chapters analyze the effect of local public sports expenditures on sports participation and individual labor market outcomes in Germany. The first chapter finds that women who obtained vocational training married a partner with higher social status. When we compare the social status of a womans father and spouse, we see that women were also less likely to marry down. Exposure to vocational training did not impact labor market outcomes though. The essay provides evidence that prevalent social norms at the time potentially played an influential role. The second chapter studies the effect gender imbalance has on fertility over the life cycle. The study shows that results strongly depend on at what point in the life cycle effects are evaluated and that the decomposition of fertility into extensive and intensive margins is essential. We find that women affected by the gender imbalance marry later and are more likely to remain childless throughout life. However, they catch up and even overcompensate at later ages with regard to number of children conditional on having any children. The third chapter investigates the effects of unbalanced gender ratios on female labor force participation, focusing specifically on women's participation in the political labor market. The analysis shows that in Germany's 1990 elections, women were more likely to run for office in voting districts where sex ratios were more unbalanced after World War II. However, gender imbalances did not affect the probability of a woman winning in the election, and, thus, it appears that voters were not more inclined to vote for women. The fourth chapter combines local public expenditure data with individual level data and studies how the effects of expenditures on sports facilities change with different levels of sports expenditures. Since individuals also benefit from the expenditures of neighboring communities, we construct locally weighted averages of expenditures. The study finds that expenditures on sports infrastructure has no effect on the probability to engage in sports. The fifth chapter finds that high expenditure on sports facilities impact male earnings positively while no effects are found for women. The study further shows that the observed patterns seem plausible, since women practice sports with a lower likelihood compared to men in general and are, in addition, less likely to be active in publicly funded sports infrastructure if they engage in sports.enDeutschlandÖkonometrisches ModellArbeitsmarktDemographietEDIS-4969doctoral thesis