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This paper empirically examines three possible reasons for the high and rising unemployment of low-skilled employees in Germany: (i) an upsurge in inter-industry trade, (ii) a skill-biased technical change, and (iii) a failure of labour market adjustment. The empirical analyses indicate that an exogenous wage-setting process as well as a bundle of factors, including a skill-biased technical and structural change, have contributed to the decline in relative demand for low-skilled employees in Germany. Thus, economic policy in Germany should focus on improving the employability of workers in the lower segment of the labour market and on raising the adjustment flexibility, above all the flexibility of the wage structure, of the German labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (United States) for cohorts entering the labor market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the two countries differed substantially in mobility rates, they were similar in the sources of wage growth, with general human capital accumulation being the most important single source and job search accounting for an additional 25% or more of total wage growth. There is no evidence that returns to firm-specific human capital accumulation were higher for German apprentices than for U.S. high school dropouts or graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the relation between population aging and the decline of unemployment in East Germany. For the analysis I adapt a direct and an indirect approach covering the years from 1996 to 2014. The direct approach quantifies the extent to which changes in the unemployment rate can be attributed to changes in the composition of the labor force. It includes a decomposition of the East German unemployment rate into changes in the workforce's age structure, labor market participation, and age-specific unemployment rates. The indirect approach centers on the effects of changing cohort sizes on the unemployment rate and involves spatial panel regressions on the small-scale regional level. Results of the direct approach show that changes in the age structure of the workforce exert only a minor impact on the unemployment rate, whereas results of the indirect approach attest aging a significant impact on unemployment. Evidently, demographic change seems to affect unemployment primarily through a general increase of competition for labor that is further fostered by feedback effects between regions than through a direct change of the age structure. I conclude that the declining unemployment rate in East Germany is indeed affected by aging as evidenced by a declining youth share and an increasing old-age share. This indicates that a reversed cohort crowding effect has taken place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour market integration is a social process suggesting that personality traits are relevant. This paper explores whether immigrants with a higher belief in their ability to control outcomes tend to be more likely to be employed. This trait is known in psychology as the locus of control (LOC). I employ a model framework that allows LOC to depend on a set of observable determining variables. Results indicate that sense of personal control is correlated with employment probability and that there is a risk that immigrants and their children tend to have a more externalized LOC. Mother's education is a key factor correlated with the sense of personal control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are almost half of the workforce but Eurostat estimated that in 2014 they earn 16.1% less than men. There are many factors influencing wages which are connected with individual characteristics of employees and employers, together with the level of the economic development. The aim of our research is to determine factors influencing man and women wages in Germany and Poland applying econometric models estimated on the basis of microdata from Structure of Earning Survey. We also analyze if wage determinants are the same in both countries and for both genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role wage dispersion across establishments has played in recent increases in total wage inequality in Germany and compares it to inequality changes at the individual level. It is queried whether the contribution of establishment heterogeneity to the rise of wage inequality stems from changes of institutional settings or from structures such as establishment size and the composition of the workforce. Design/methodology/approach – Applying regression-based decompositions of variance to German linked employer-employee panel data for the years 2000-2010 it is analysed to what extent changes associated to firm structures contribute to the rise of total wage inequality. Findings – Results show that the rise in wage inequality in Germany to a great extent is associated to rising wage variance across establishments, implying that establishment specific wage premiums have grown. By further decomposing across firm components of wage inequality, it is found that changes in across establishment wage inequality related to collective bargaining, worker co-determination and internal labour markets together account for about 3 per cent of the rise in total inequality. Inequality changes related to establishments’ skill and occupational composition account for about 11 per cent and establishment size alone accounts for about 18 per cent of the rise in total inequality. Originality/value – The main contribution is to quantify the relation of specific establishment characteristics to the rise in total wage inequality over time. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of mechanisms of rent sharing at the firm level in comparison to the determination of wages by individual qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-reported satisfaction measures respond to a great variety of socio-demographic characteristics as well as the job and living environment. In this paper we ask whether the recent financial market crisis has caused a deterioration of satisfaction not only for the unemployed but also for those out of the labour force and especially those in employment. The focus of our analyses is on the pattern of life, job and health satisfaction over time and the influence of unemployment rates, inflation rates and GDP growth. We compare the UK and Germany, two countries with different employment protection regulations and different consequences of the crisis for the labour market. For our analysis we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study for the period 1996-2010 and supplement this with annual information on macroeconomic indicators. We estimate Ordered Logit and OLS models, both with individual fixed effects. We find some limited psychological costs with respect to self-reported life satisfaction in the crisis years, and a considerable impact of regional and national unemployment rates. Looking at job and health satisfaction we get similar though somewhat weaker results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Western and Eastern European countries, the habilitation is the highest formal qualification awarded by universities, ranking above the doctorate. Despite its central role in the European higher education system, little is known about the career trajectories of those who have obtained this degree. This paper systematically analyzes the career trajectories of scientists and scholars who have completed a habilitation in Germany, comparing these to those of individuals who did not complete a further degree after their PhD. To do so, linked social insurance data from a period of 2 years prior to 15 years after receiving the doctorate are used. My analysis reveals the substantial monetary costs of pursuing an additional qualification after the PhD. The empirical findings indicate that the benefits of an additional qualification beyond the PhD are primarily non-monetary, for example having a cognitively demanding and challenging job requiring a high level of education, and an increased likelihood of employment within the academic sector. These findings may indicate that beyond a certain level of education, and with an already fairly strong integration into the labor market, non-financial aspects of work could become more significant to individuals than income maximization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active labour market programmes (ALMPs) should help young adults who collect welfare benefits 'get back on track'. Despite the recent proliferation of research on ALMPs, only scant attention has been paid to their employment quality effects. Aiming to fill this gap, this article evaluates the long-term effects of German ALMPs on young adults' employment quality. We measure employment quality with two indicators: one on whether someone has a job with earnings below the low wage threshold and the other on whether they have a job with earnings above the low wage threshold. These measures help us assess whether ALMPs prevent young adults from being at risk of poverty again. In addition, we study whether ALMP effects vary by social origin. We distinguish young adults by whether their families collected benefits when they were adolescents, as a marker for disadvantaged social origin. We analyse in-firm training and one-euro jobs as examples for enabling and workfare programmes, which exist across other welfare states as well. Empirically, we apply an entropy balancing approach to a self-drawn sample from registry data to analyse ALMP treatment effects. Results show that in-firm training enhances young adults' employment quality in the long run. The effects tend to be lower for those from disadvantaged families though, indicating that disadvantages embedded in social origin remain. The workfare programme harms participants' employment quality, with those less disadvantaged suffering the greatest damage. Overall, our research provides evidence that in-firm training effectively enables young adults to find a job of higher quality, addressing their risk of social exclusion and proving useful in promoting upward social mobility. Nonetheless, the article also raises urgent issues concerning how the needs of those most vulnerable can be addressed by social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-country research argues that the design of welfare states and social protection systems shapes the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Studies that examine this relationship within a country are however lacking from the literature. Based on a quasi-experimental research design using difference-in-differences estimation and data from the Socio-Economic Panel, I analyse whether the educational disadvantage of children of long-term unemployment assistance recipients increased after changes to eligibility criteria, benefit levels, and conditionality were introduced in Germany in 2005. I find that differences in the probability to enter the academic secondary school track between children of parents receiving long-term unemployment assistance one year before the transition and children of parents not receiving unemployment or social benefits increased by 13 percentage points. In part, this was driven by the introduction of means-testing that changed the composition of unemployment assistance recipients. However, further decreases in the financial conditions of these already disadvantaged families following reductions in benefit levels appear as the main driver of the observed effect. Changes in parental subjective wellbeing due to increased benefit conditionality and stigma do not seem to play a significant mediating role. The findings highlight the important contribution of social policy to social mobility and equality of opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the quantity–quality trade‐off on the labor market by estimating an augmented matching function weighting the matches by quality measures. We use the approach to evaluate the German labor market reforms conducted between 2003 and 2005. Indeed, we find a significant quantity–quality trade‐off. However, even after controlling for job quality, a good half of the positive effect of the reforms on matching efficiency remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last years, the employment rate of older workers has increased sharply in Germany. Against this background, the question arose as to whether firms have contributed actively to the growing share of older employees, either by offering special human resource management (HRM) measures, such as further training (internal strategy) or by hiring older employees from the external labour market (external strategy). Our paper analyses the interrelation between both strategies. By using data from the IAB Establishment Panel, we investigate the determinants of the firms' decision to use one or the other strategy or to combine both strategies. Our analyses show that some factors, such as firm size, experiences with older staff or a shortage of skilled workers promote the decision for both strategies. Other characteristics, in contrast, have a positive effect on one strategy only. This applies in particular to industrial relations, but also to the share of qualified workers within a company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nachdem die Soziale Markwirtschaft jahrzehntelang als selbstverständliche Wirtschaftsordnung in Deutschland akzeptiert wurde, wird sie in jüngerer Zeit zunehmend in Frage gestellt. Interventionistische und planwirtschaftliche Eingriffe nehmen zu, vor allem im Wohnungsmarkt, im Arbeitsmarkt und in der Energie- und Umweltpolitik. Das deutsche Grundgesetz bietet keinen Schutz vor solchen Tendenzen, denn es lässt die Frage der Wirtschaftsordnung prinzipiell offen und erlaubt in Artikel 15 sogar ausdrücklich die Vergesellschaftung von Boden und Produktionsmitteln. Eine Gruppe von mehr als 50 Ökonomen setzt sich deshalb dafür ein, diesen Passus zu streichen und stattdessen die Soziale Marktwirtschaft in der Verfassung explizit zu verankern. Der Beitrag diskutiert die Pro- und Contra-Argumente für diesen Vorschlag aus ökonomischer und juristischer Sicht. Er kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass eine Einfügung der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft in das Grundgesetz analog zu den Europäischen Verträgen sowohl sinnvoll als auch notwendig wäre. While the Social Market Economy was generally accepted as the German economic constitution for decades, it is more and more challenged in recent times. Both intervening and economically controlling interventions are constantly on the rise, in particular in housing, in the labour market, and concerning energy and environment policy. The German basic law does not provide protection against such tendencies, because it is not specific about the economic constitution and even allows socialisation of both land and means of production in article 15. For these reasons, a group of more than 50 economists stands up for an explicit anchoring of the social market economy in the constitution. The paper discusses the pros and cons of this proposal from both the economic and the legal side. The final conclusion is that, analogously to the European treaties, the social market economy should indeed be included in the basic law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the impact of higher education reforms on academic teaching and the concrete implications of the new academic teaching requirements for the professional practice of professors. It explores how labour market requirements change the university from the point of view of professors and how they deal with these changes. The paper draws on 64 interviews with professors from Germany, which were conducted as part of a qualitative study on the consequences of performance evaluation procedures at German universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of the size of the local labor market on skill mismatch. Using survey data for Germany, I find that workers in large cities are both less likely to be overqualified for their job and to work in a different field than the one for which they trained. Different empirical strategies are employed to account for the potential sorting of talented workers into more urbanized areas. Results on individuals who have never moved away from the place in which they grew up and fixed effects estimates obtaining identification through regional migrants suggest that sorting does not fully explain the existing differences in qualification mismatch across areas. This provides evidence of the existence of agglomeration economies through better matches. However, lower qualification mismatch in larger cities is found to explain at best a small part of the urban wage premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensified counseling, job search assistance and related policies have been found to be effective for labor market integration of the unemployed by a large number of studies, but the evidence for older and hard‐to‐place unemployed is more mixed. In this paper, we present key results for a large‐scale active labor market program directed at the older unemployed in Germany. To identify the treatment effects, we exploit regional variation in program participation. We use a combination of different evaluation estimators to check the sensitivity of the results to selection, substitution and local labor market effects. We find positive effects of the program in the range of 5–10 percentage points on integration into unsubsidized employment. However, there are also substantial lock‐in effects, such that program participants have a higher probability of remaining on public welfare benefit receipt for up to 1 year after commencing the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge diffusion is argued to be strongly influenced by knowledge networks and spatial structures. However, empirical studies primarily apply an indirect approach in measuring their impact. Moreover, little is known about how policy can influence the spatial diffusion of knowledge. This paper seeks to fill this gap by testing empirically the effects of policy induced knowledge networks on the propensity of inter-regional patent citations. We use patent citation data for 141 labor market regions in Germany between 2000 to 2009, which is merged with information on subsidized joint R&D projects. Based on the latter, we construct a network of subsidized R&D collaboration. Its impact on inter-regional patent citations is evaluated with binomial and negative binomial regression models. Our findings do not indicate that inter-regional network links created by public R&D subsidies facilitate patent citations and, hence, inter-regional knowledge diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether the density of local labour markets in Germany impacts on the wage of new employment relationships and whether corresponding urbanization economies differ significantly across distinct types of transitions to employment. The results suggest rather small static urbanization benefits. Doubling employment density increases the wage of new employment relationships by 1.0–2.6%. Moreover, benefits seem to accrue only to persons experiencing job-to-job transitions and the short-term unemployed, but not to the long-term unemployed. It is supposed these differences point to matching advantages in large urban labour markets from which only some job seekers benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2007, the United States subprime mortgage crisis triggered not only turbulences on global financial markets but also worldwide economic slowdown. This 'Great Recession' hit labour markets in Europe. Using time-series data on unemployment, fixed-term employment and real wages, this paper describes economic changes in Germany and European average before, during and shortly after the Great Recession. Based on these macro data, it is clear that Germany experienced a unique path of development compared to other European societies. We then analyse the impact of the financial crisis on labour market entry and early career processes in Germany, comparing young people who started their first jobs shortly before, during and after the Great Recession. Using longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we apply ordinary regression analysis and discrete-time event history models. Findings show that, in Germany, job prestige at labour market entry has in fact not changed for men during the economic crisis in comparison to the situation before and afterwards. Low-educated women (only) were more likely to start employment in a lower prestige job during the crisis than at other times. However, years of schooling appeared more important for men's early upward career mobility, if they entered the labour market during the financial crisis. Furthermore, less-educated women entering employment in the crisis were even more likely to be upward mobile. We observe little change in early downward career mobility for men and women after starting their first employment in Germany over the Great Recession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftspolitik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Asylum seekers who migrate from developing countries to Europe frequently experience victimization events during their journey. The consequences of these events for their economic integration into destination countries are not yet well explored. In this paper, we analyze how victimization during asylum seekers' journeys affects their labor market integration in Germany by using survey data collected in the aftermath of the 2015 refugee crisis. Our data allow us to account for the exact timing and geography of migration, such that samples of physically victimized and nonvictimized refugees are balanced along a wide range of characteristics. We find that, compared to nonvictimized refugees, refugees who were physically victimized during their journey to Germany favor joining the labor force and taking up low-income employment rather than investing in host country human capital. To explain these findings, we explore a range of potential mechanisms and find suggestive evidence that experiencing physical victimization in vulnerable situations is not only associated with a decline in mental health but also with a "loss of future orientation" among physically victimized refugees, leading them to discount future payoffs more heavily. • Asylum seekers migrating to Europe frequently experience victimization during their journey. • This study finds that refugees who experienced physical victimization on their way to Germany are more likely to prioritize entering the labor market, often in low-income jobs, over investing in host country human capital. • A potential mechanism behind this behavior is that physical victimization may lead to a "loss of future orientation", causing affected refugees to discount future payoffs more heavily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I contrast the effects of individual and spousal disability on subjective well-being and labor supply using data on couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984-2006. I find almost no effects in terms of labor market outcomes for both men and women, which stands in stark contrast to the effects of individual disability. The life-satisfaction of women, but not of men, is reduced considerably by their partners' disability. The effects are about 50-73 % as large as those of individual disability. I also find no evidence that individuals adapt to their partners' disability, although there is adaptation to individual disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, the German labour market has undergone a sweeping institutional transformation. While during the 1990s and early 2000s, Germany was usually regarded as the ‘sick man of Europe’, the country's economy has recently been described in many respects as an international role model. Around a decade ago, a reform package was introduced that resulted in the unemployment rate being almost cut in half, in spite of the difficult economic climate due to the financial crisis and the succeeding and still ongoing problems in the Eurozone. However, the success has also been challenged due to its alleged internal and external unpleasant side-effects by critics. After having explained the essence of the German social market economy and its development prior to the deep downswing of 2008/2009 which was coined the ‘Great Recession’ by leading US economists, the paper summarises the key aspects of the rather unexpected German labour market successes since 2009 and addresses claims of related distributional injustice of these reforms within the country as well as assertions that the German success of ongoing high exports and current account surpluses is based on beggar-thy-neighbour policies. Finally, the paper briefly asks whether Germany has faced up to its responsibilities during the crisis in the Eurozone since the end of 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates how institutions governing the employment relationship influence firms' adaptation to environmental changes. After the Berlin Wall fell, migration from East Germany accounted for an abrupt increase in the supply of a key resource--labor--in the West. I study responses to this disruption among firms in the economically important machinery and equipment industry. I find that western firms adapted to migration by increasing employment unless they were affiliated with a works council, an institution that limits the firm's autonomy in managing its workforce. I also find evidence of institution-contingent responses to migration in two areas of firm strategy: vertical boundaries and the focus on exploration versus exploitation. The results suggest that "hybrid" (i.e., less hierarchical) governance institutions increase adaptation costs. The results also indicate that such adaptation costs have implications for multiple aspects of firm decision making that are nominally beyond the scope of those governance institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author in the article presents the conditionings and the main changes introduced through labour market reforms implemented in Germany since the activity of the Hartz Commission. There were presented the components of all four Hartz Reforms and the directions of its continuation after 2005. The aim of the publication is to determine, which of the German solutions are possible to implement in the Polish economic and social conditionings. The research method undertaken in that paper was the analysis of secondary data - both statistical as well as reports and publications connected with German labour market policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors associated with a gendered division of childcare among parents in Germany. While much is known on the gender division of housework in families and the economic and sociological factors that may be driving it, we still know relatively little about whether and how these factors may affect the division of unpaid childcare in families. We first assess the relevance of partner’s combined gender ideologies and relative resources on the division of unpaid childcare. Second, we assess whether the effect of economic resources may be contingent on the partners’ agreement or disagreement on gender ideologies concerning maternal employment. We address these questions using data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) and MLM Growth Curve Models. Our findings consistently show a significant positive effect of partners’ combined gender ideologies and her share of income on his share of childcare. These effects are strongest, and robust, among couples with matching ideologies supporting maternal employment, which we term ‘egalitarian island’ couples. Economically efficient divisions of childcare thus appear dependent upon the couples’ ideological pairing and on mothers’ ideologies towards maternal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German educational system is characterized by a large sector of dual vocational training, which facilitates integration into the labour market. This system creates a specific training market for school leavers, which is characterized by strong regional disparities. These differences as well as their consequences have not been systematically analysed in previous research. In a theory-guided analysis this paper examines empirically which structural ‘handicaps’ affect regional transition rates from school to training and how regional training markets may be classified according to these structural factors. To this end, a new method is applied which combines regression and cluster analysis to avoid arbitrariness in the selection of classification variables. It generates a well-interpretable classification of vocational education markets, which is of broad use in research and labour market policy. The method may be applied to solve a broad variety of similar research problems in regional science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries--Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types--this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residential care. With attention paid to issues of "capacity" and the institutional arrangements in each case, we find that institutional histories in Germany and Sweden permitted a certain recidivistic reliance on established practices in the areas of employment and social protection. In sum, certain social and economic inequalities were mitigated as these countries set aside recent trends toward "liberalization" and mobilized longer-standing institutional capacities to protect some groups, although by no means all. Evidence of this trend is less clear in the health and residential care sectors, where Germany had existing capacity, allowing its older population to weather the crisis in better order than its counterparts in Sweden and the UK. In the UK, welfare liberalization has led to increased social and economic inequalities and funding reductions in health and residential care--all of which have reduced the country's ability to deal with severe crisis. The Covid response in this case was agile, but also chaotic, with little being done to ameliorate the positions of the most vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On average, temporary jobs are far less stable than permanent jobs. This higher instability could potentially lower workers' incentives to relocate towards the workplace, thereby resulting in longer commutes. However, surprisingly few studies have investigated the link between temporary employment and commuting length. Building on the notion that individuals strive to optimize their utility when deciding where to work and live, we develop and test a theoretical framework that predicts commuting outcomes for different types of temporary workers – fixed-term, casual and temporary agency workers – and in different institutional contexts. We estimate fixed-effects regression models using 17 waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). As expected, the results show that the link between temporary employment and commuting length varies by employment type and institutional context. Agency work is associated with longer commutes than permanent work in both countries, whereas this applies to fixed-term contracts for Germany only. For casual work, the findings suggest no commuting length differential to permanent employment. In terms of policy, our findings suggest lengthy commuting can be a side effect of flexible labour markets, with potentially negative implications for worker well-being, transportation management and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On average, mothers and fathers in Germany divide paid work and care work very unequally. Mothers often only work part time, which results in further gender inequalities in the labor market. A current analysis of data from the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA) shows that the population’s attitudes toward the ideal division of work between couples with children under 12 are considerably more egalitarian than the actual behavior of couples with young children of different ages. This discrepancy is due in part to the financial incentives of the German tax and transfer system for married couples, which arise from the interplay between income splitting (Ehegattensplitting) and the tax treatment of mini-jobs. In addition, childcare infrastructure is insufficient and a very high gender pay gap persists in Germany. If policymakers want to dismantle inequalities in the labor market, the tax and transfer system must be modernized and childcare options expanded to make a more equal division of paid work and care work between parents more appealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the complex web of causes that have contributed to Germany's gradual decline as a sought-after business location. This scholarly work methodically examines a variety of internal and external variables shaping the country's economic environment, thus providing a comprehensive picture of the significant challenges currently faced by the German economy. The study methodically analyzes key variables such as labor market dynamics, regulatory frameworks, demographic changes and infrastructure improvements to uncover the root causes of this decline. The results of this research are of enormous importance for the formulation of strategic, precise policy initiatives aimed at revitalizing the German economy, strengthening its resilience and restoring its position as a global beacon for industry recruitment and retention. Using a strong mixed methods approach, this study leverage the synergy of primary data collected through surveys, interviews and case studies, and secondary data derived from government reports, academic publications and economic indicators. This multi-layered technology makes it easier to recognize observable patterns and develop concrete, realistic plans that will lead Germany to long-term economic development and prosperity. This research is a component of efforts to revitalize Germany's economic strength and restore its reputation as a leading commercial center, and provides useful information for policymakers, industry executives and academics alike. The comprehensive analysis presented in this study has far-reaching implications for the larger European economic environment and contributes to the global discourse on sustainable economic development and renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany's recovery from an unemployment disease and its resilience to the Great Recession is remarkable. Its success story makes it a showcase for labor policy and labor market reforms. This paper assesses the potential of the German experience as a model for effective, evidence-based policymaking. Flexible management of working time (through overtime and short-time work, time accounts, and labor hoarding), social cohesion and controlled unit labor costs, combined with a rigid, incentive-oriented labor policy supported by effective program evaluation, define the characteristics of a strong reference model. Austerity, sometimes seen as core to the German model, is not viewed as a key element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation has transformed the seafarer labour market. As shipping companies have flagged vessels out to open registers, they have shifted from recruiting seafarers on a local hire, frequently permanent, basis to employing seafarers from developing countries on temporary contracts via third party crewing agencies. This has diminished opportunities for seafarers in developed countries and has also impacted on less visible groups-those transmigrants who formerly travelled to European hub ports to be hired directly by companies on European terms and conditions. Using the example of shipping, this paper presents an account of how changes in global labour markets impact differentially on groups and have the potential to cause particular problems for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how economic theory can be combined with state-of-the-art empirics to make quantitative statements about optimal policy. Using a large administrative data set for West Germany as well as nonparametric and semiparametric estimation techniques, I parameterize the model proposed by Pavoni and Violante (2005, 2007) for the optimal choice of different financial and activation measures for unemployed workers. The parameterized model is used to study the role of job search assistance in optimal welfare-to-work programs and assess the optimality of the West German policy in the period 2000 to 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrielle Beziehungen is the property of Rainer Hampp Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – After a brief glance at the global labour market after the financial meltdown the paper aims to explain some general mechanisms of short-time work in Germany. Furthermore it seeks to present an overview of the costs of short-time work for the establishments with respect to the latest labour market reforms in Germany. In the multivariate analyses with the IAB Establishment Panel the paper aims to identify the determinants of short-time work and its intensity in Germany. Thus it's goal is to contribute to the discussion of the modified and amended legislative framework for short-time work. Design/methodology/approach – The microeconometric analysis is based on data from the IAB Establishment Panel, a representative survey of the labour demand in Germany. With data from the survey waves 2008-2010 the probability of the use of short-time work with probit regression models and its intensity with truncated regression models are explained. Findings – The manufacturing industry as a German key industry was more affected than other sectors and suffered even harder. Despite the fact that the German labour administration has successfully reduced the bureaucracy of short-time work, the programme is still rather adopted by bigger establishments. German establishments have utilized their flexibility reserves and complementary short-time work to protect their core staff during the crisis. There is also some empirical evidence that the establishments tried to avoid brain drains. With the first signs of a recovery of the economy at the beginning of 2010 the establishments benefitted a lot from that strategy as they were instantly able to satisfy increasing demands in their markets again. Empirical evidence is also found that establishments made more intensive use of short-time work the harder they were suffering from the crisis. Originality/value – For the first time the latest data from the survey wave 2010 of the IAB Establishment Panel is used and compared with the 2009 survey wave. The structure of the panel questionnaire allows the implementation of some specific questions concerning the use of short-time work. The IAB Establishment Panel has a sample size of approximately 16,000 cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT European labour markets have undergone several important innovations over the last three decades. Most countries have reformed their labour markets since the mid-1990s, with the liberalization of fixed-term contracts and temporary work agencies being the common elements to such reforms. This paper investigates the existence of a change in the dynamic behaviour of the aggregate employment for major European Union countries - France, Germany, Italy and Spain. According to our results, partial labour market reforms have made the response of the aggregate employment to output shocks larger and quite comparable to that found for the UK - the most flexible labour market in Europe since the Thatcher reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Personalforschung is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper proposed focuses on the unit-nonresponse in the IAB (Institute for Employment Research) Establishment Panel, a comprehensive data set describing the employer side of the labour market in Germany. Every year since 1993 (1996) the IAB Establishment Panel has surveyed the same establishments from all branches and different size categories in western (eastern) Germany. Although great efforts are taken to convince the owner/manager to take part in the survey there are always firms that do not answer the questionnaire. In this paper the authors try to find out why some establishments are not willing or able to respond to the questionnaire. If the respondent has the authority to provide relevant information, is able to give reliable answers to the questions with a justifiable amount of effort and is interested in the survey in business terms, participation is less frequently refused. The results also confirm the central significance of the interaction between the respondent and the interviewer. If one of the two individuals changes, the probability of further participation falls clearly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In industrialized economies, International Outsourcing is often blamed for destroying jobs and thus, inducing unemployment. Since most contributions examining International Outsourcing assume flexible wages, they do not address these concerns directly. This paper adopts a rigid wage approach and investigates the differences occurring. As theoretical results and the empirical panel data estimations for Germany show, effects depend on industry aggregation, the industry's skill intensity, and the labor market institution. Only in industries characterized by wage rigidity, outsourcing significantly increases low skilled unemployment. Consequently, not International Outsourcing but inflexible labor market institutions instead should be blamed for destroying low skill jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrielle Beziehungen is the property of Rainer Hampp Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many case studies highlight a positive relationship between regions' innovation performance and the intensity of collaboration among regional organizations. However, few efforts have been made to analyze this relation with quantitative approaches. In addition to a theoretical discussion, the paper presents an empirical investigation on this issue utilizing conditional efficiency analysis and patent co-application data for the Electrics & Electronics industry in 270 German labor market regions. The results show that the relationship between regions' innovation performance and the intensities of regional as well as inter-regional collaboration take the form of an inverted-U shape. Regions with average regional and inter-regional collaboration intensities are found to outperform those characterized by extremely low, high or unbalanced collaboration behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

. This paper studies ethnic discrimination in Germany's labour market with a correspondence test. We send two similar applications to each of 528 advertisements for student internships, one with a Turkish-sounding and one with a German-sounding name. A German name raises the average probability of a callback by about 14%. Differential treatment is particularly strong and significant in smaller firms at which the applicant with the German name receives 24% more callbacks. Discrimination disappears when we restrict our sample to applications including reference letters which contain favourable information about the candidate's personality. We interpret this finding as evidence for statistical discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Labor market programs may affect unemployed individuals' behavior before they enroll. The aim of this paper is to study whether such ex ante effects differ according to ethnic origin. Design/methodology/approach -- The authors apply a method that relates self-reported perceived treatment rates and job search behavioral outcomes, such as the reservation wage or search intensity, to each other. German native workers are compared with migrants with a Turkish origin or Central and Eastern European (including Russian) background. Job search theory is used to derive theoretical predictions. The ex ante effect of the German active labor market program (ALMP) system is examined using the novel IZA Evaluation Data Set which includes self-reported assessments of the variables of interest as well as an unusually detailed amount of information on behavior, attitudes and past outcomes. Findings -- It is found that the ex ante threat effect on the reservation wage and search effort varies considerably among the groups considered. Originality/value -- The study is the first to investigate whether migrants and natives react similarly to the expectation of participating in an ALMP, and whether migrants of different regions of origin react similarly or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment has persistently been found to severely decrease the life satisfaction of individuals. Even after income and other socioeconomic characteristics are controlled for, the employment status remains an important determinant of happiness, pointing to non-pecuniary functions of work. But what effect does labour market policy have? Can the psychosocial functions of work be fulfilled by activation measures, offsetting the detrimental life satisfaction effect of unemployment? Analysing panel data, this paper shows that the biggest German activation programme ‘One-Euro-Job’ is connected to a level of life satisfaction that is significantly higher than the one of respective unemployed welfare benefit recipients. This effect is especially strong if participants perceive the measure to match their personal skills and to increase their future employment chances, but vanishes if participants perceive it as degrading. In total, satisfaction scores of participants do not match the level of the regularly employed. In contrast to these pronounced differences in cross-sectional analyses, longitudinal models show similar effects but are less statistically robust, pointing to certain selection biases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]