Browsing by Subject "Arbeitslosigkeit"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Die Arbeitsmarktsituation formal Geringqualifizierter in Deutschland : Folgen, Ursachen und Politikimplikationen einer veränderten Nachfrage nach einfacher Arbeit
(2015) Rukwid, Ralf; Hagemann, Harald
This dissertation provides an elaborate discussion of the labour market situation of low-skilled workers in Germany. It starts with a precise description of the employment and wage effects for unskilled labour in the context of a skill-specific structural change and the tendency towards a knowledge-based economy. The analysis focuses on the current job and income opportunities of low-skilled workers as well as the historical developments. This is followed by an overview of the theoretical determinants of the specific labour market problems of unskilled workers and the main explanations for a long-term demand shift away from low-skilled labour (trade vs. technology). Finally, different political approaches for an improvement of the job prospects of less-qualified persons in Germany are presented and evaluated. The focus here is on one hand on various strategies for enhancing flexibility of the German wage structure and on the other hand on a further expansion and improvement of the system of education and vocational training.
Capital shortage unemployment in Germany and the UK
(1998) Arestis, Philip; Biefang-Frisancho Mariscal, Iris; Hagemann, Harald
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Fairness considerations in labor union wage setting : a theoretical analysis
(2012) Strifler, Matthias; Beißinger, Thomas
We consider a theoretical model in which unions not only take the outside option into account, but also base their wage-setting decisions on an internal reference, called the fairness reference. Wage and employment outcomes and the shape of the aggregate wagesetting curve depend on the weight and the size of the fairness reference relative to the outside option. If the fairness reference is relatively high compared to the outside option, higher wages and lower employment than in the standard model will prevail. If hit by an adverse technology shock, the economy will then react with a stronger downward adjustment in employment, whereas real wages are more rigid than in the standard model. With a low fairness reference the opposite results are obtained. An increase in the fairness weight amplifies the deviations of wages and employment from those of the standard model. It also leads to an increase in the degree of real wage rigidity if the fairness reference is high and an increase in the degree of real wage flexibility if the fairness reference is low. Thus, higher wages go hand in hand with more pronounced wage stickiness.
Heterogeneous labour, the unemployment equilibrium, and the natural rate
(1998) Spahn, Heinz-Peter
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Nobelpreis für Wirtschaftswissenschaften 2006 an Edmund S. Phelps
(2006) Polleit, Thorsten; Geisslreither, Kai; Belke, Ansgar
Am 9. Oktober dieses Jahres gab die Königlich Schwedische Akademie der Wissenschaften (KVA) bekannt, dass der Ökonom Edmund S. Phelps mit dem Wirtschaftsnobelpreis ausgezeichnet wird. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die wissenschaftlichen Leistungen von Phelps vor und ordnet sie in den makroökonomischen Gesamtkontext ein. Phelps? Arbeiten haben signifikant zur Verbesserung der Theorie des makroökonomischen Politik-Designs beigetragen. Von ihm ging die Idee einer um Erwartungen modifizierten Phillips-Kurve aus; diese trug dazu bei, den Konflikt zwischen Inflation und Beschäftigung als ?Scheinkonflikt? zu entlarven. Phelps lieferte somit einen bedeutenden Beitrag für die Mikrofundierung der Makroökonomik. Phelps? zweite bedeutende makroökonomische Innovation war die Entdeckung der goldenen Regel der Kapitalakkumulation. Auch sie birgt wichtige Politikimplikationen. Die Auszeichnung von Edmund S. Phelps ist ein folgerichtiger Schritt zur Würdigung eines Ökonomen, der die moderne Makroökonomik in umfassender Weise geprägt hat.
Offshoring and labour market reforms : modelling the German experience
(2015) Hellier, Joël; Beißinger, Thomas; Chusseau, Nathalie
A usual interpretation of the high performance of the German economy since 2005 is that the Hartz labour market reforms have boosted German competitiveness, resulting in higher exports, higher production and lower unemployment. This explanation is at odds with the sequence of observed facts. We propose and model an alternative scenario in which offshoring explains the gains in competitiveness but increases unemployment and inequality, and the subsequent labour market reforms lower unemployment by lessening the reservation wage and expanding the non-tradable sector. The model replicates the developments of the German economy since 1995: 1) Germany offshores more intensively than other advanced countries; 2) The increase in competitiveness and in the exports/production ratio occurs before the implementation of the labour market reform, and this comes with both higher inequality and higher unemployment; 3) The implementation of the reform reduces unemployment, but also decreases the exports/production ratio and increases inequality. The model also predicts that the reduction in unemployment in Germany would have occurred without the Hartz reforms, but later and less intensively. We finally discuss the possible extension of this ‘strategy’ to other Eurozone countries, and alternative policies that activate similar mechanisms without increasing inequality.
Perspectives of workers with low qualifications in Germany under the pressures of globalization and technical progress
(2007) Rukwid, Ralf; Hagemann, Harald
This paper gives a detailed analysis of the perspectives of workers with low qualifications in Germany under the twofold pressures of globalization and technological change. First, alternative explanations for the skill-bias in the development of labour demand are discussed, with particular emphasis on the ?trade versus technology? debate. The consequences of the demand shift away from low-skilled labour in Germany are examined in a detailed empirical analysis of the development of (un)employment problems differentiated for qualification groups. Compared to other advanced economies, Germany shows a higher unemployment rate among less-qualified workers which is generally associated with a lack of flexibility in the German wage structure. However, an analysis of German, U.S. and British wage data based on the Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF) does not confirm the assumption of a simple monocausal relationship between wage disparity and the intensity of group-specific unemployment. Finally, some political approaches for an improvement of the job prospects of less-qualified persons in Germany are outlined briefly and evaluated against the background of the empirical results.
Trade and unemployment : what do the data say?
(2009) Felbermayr, Gabriel; Prat, Julien; Schmerer, Hans-Jörg
This paper documents a robust empirical regularity: in the long-run, higher trade openness is causally associated to a lower structural rate of unemployment. We establish this fact using: (i) panel data from 20 OECD countries, (ii) cross-sectional data on a larger set of countries. The time structure of the panel data allows to deal with endogeneity concerns, whereas cross-sectional data make it possible to instrument openness by its geographical component. In both setups, we carefully purge the data from business cycle effects, include a host of institutional and geographical variables, and control for within-country trade. Our main finding is robust to various definitions of unemployment rates and openness measures. The preferred specification suggests that a 10 percent increase in total trade openness reduces unemployment by about one percentage point. Moreover, we show that openness affects unemployment mainly through its effect on TFP and that labor market institutions do not appear to condition the effect of openness.
Unemployment in an interdependent world
(2009) Felbermayr, Gabriel; Larch, Mario; Lechthaler, Wolfgang
We introduce search and matching unemployment into a model of trade with differentiated goods and heterogeneous firms. Countries may differ with respect to size, geographical location, and labor market institutions. Contrary to the literature, our single-sector perspective pays special attention to the role of income effects and shows that bad institutions in one country worsen labor market outcomes not only in that country but also in its trading partners. This spill-over effect is conditioned by trade costs and country size: smaller and/or more centrally located nations suffer less from inefficient policies at home and are more heavily affected from spill-overs abroad than larger and/or peripheral ones. We offer empirical evidence for a panel of 20 rich OECD countries. Carefully controlling for institutional features and for business cycle comovements between countries, we confirm our qualitative theoretical predictions. However, the magnitude of spill-over effects is larger in the data than in the theoretical model. We show that introducing real wage rigidity can remedy this problem.