Wage insurance within German firms: do institutions matter?

Using a large linked employer-employee data set, this paper studies the extent to which employers insure workers against transitory and permanent firm-level shocks. Particular emphasis is given to the question of whether the amount of wage insurance depends on the nature of industrial relations. Adopting the identification strategy proposed by Guiso et al. (2005), it is shown that wage insurance is particularly apparent for individuals subject to collective wage agreements. While collective contracts alone are sufficient to fully insure workers against transitory shocks in small plants, they provide only partial insurance in medium-sized and large plants. At large employers, the joint existence of collective contracts and works councils helps to provide full insurance against transitory shocks, but provides only partial insurance against permanent shocks. This finding is consistent with the amount of insurance against permanent shocks being constrained by the possibility of considerable job losses and bankruptcy. --Wage insurance,linked employer-employee data,collective bargaining

Job and Worker Reallocation in German Establishments: The Role of Employers? Wage Policies and Labour Market Institutions

Using a large linked employer-employee data set, this paper studies the relationship between job reallocation, worker reallocation and the flexibility of wages in western German manufacturing. Using the plant-specific residual wage dispersion as a proxy for wage flexibility, we find that more flexible wages are associated with less job reallocation due to demand shocks being absorbed by wage rather than by quantity adjustments. As to excess worker reallocation, our results provide evidence of a significant positive relationship between excess worker flows and residual wage dispersion. Consistent with the hypothesis that more flexible wages should help employers in dissolving bad matches, this relationship is found to be most pronounced for low-quality workers. In interacting our measure of wage flexibility with the degree of plantspecific employment protection we find that less stringent firing practices may considerably reduce the need for more flexible wages in order to attain optimal worker-firm matches. --Job Reallocation,Worker Reallocation,Wage Dispersion

Should low-wage workers care about where they work? Assessing the impact of employer characteristics on low-wage mobility

This paper studies the importance of employer-specific determinants in escaping low earnings in Germany. To address the initial conditions problem and the endogeneity of employer retention, we model (intra-firm) low-pay transitions using a multivariate Probit model that accounts for selection into low-wage employment and non-random employer drop-out. Using data from the LIAB Linked Employer-Employee panel, our results indicate that for male workers from the service sector the probability of escaping low-pay increases with employer size. This contrasts with female workers from the service sector, who rather benefit from collective bargaining coverage and local works councils. These findings are consistent with internal labour markets being an important ingredient of male within-firm wage growth, whereas the removal of asymmetric information appears to be more relevant in explaining female workers' wage transitions. --wage mobility,trivariate probit,linked employer-employee data

Job and worker reallocation in German establishments : the role of employers' wage policies and labour market institutions

Using a large linked employer-employee data set, this paper studies the relationship between job reallocation, worker reallocation and the flexibility of wages in western German manufacturing. Using the plant-specific residual wage dispersion as a proxy for wage flexibility, we find that more flexible wages are associated with less job reallocation due to demand shocks being absorbed by wage rather than by quantity adjustments. As to excess worker reallocation, our results provide evidence of a significant positive relationship between excess worker flows and residual wage dispersion. Consistent with the hypothesis that more flexible wages should help employers in dissolving bad matches, this relationship is found to be most pronounced for low-quality workers. In interacting our measure of wage flexibility with the degree of plantspecific employment protection we find that less stringent firing practices may considerably reduce the need for more flexible wages in order to attain optimal worker-firm matches

Maternity leave and mothers' long-term sickness absence : evidence from Germany

Exploiting unique German administrative data, we estimate the association between an expansion in maternity leave duration from two to six months in 1979 and mothers’ post-birth long-term sickness absence over a period of three decades after childbirth. Using a regression discontinuity design, we first show that the leave extension caused mothers to significantly delay their return to work within the first year after childbirth. We then compare the number and length of spells of long-term sickness absence of returned mothers who gave birth before and after the change in leave legislation. Our findings suggest that among those returned, mothers subject to the leave extension exhibit a higher incidence of long-term sickness absence as compared to control mothers. This also holds true after controlling for observable differences in pre-birth illness histories. At the same time, there are no pronounced effects on mothers’ medium-run labor market attachment following the short-run delay in return to work, which might rationalize a negative causal health effect. Breaking down the results by mothers’ pre-birth health status suggests that the higher incidence of long-term sickness absence among the treated may be explained by the fact that the reform has facilitated re-entry of a negative health selection into the labor market

Reformen im Niedriglohnsektor : eine integrierte CGE-Mikrosimulationsstudie der Arbeitsangebots- und Beschäftigungseffekte

Ziel dieses Beitrags ist die Quantifizierung der mit der Einführung des Arbeitslosengeldes II verbundenen Arbeitsangebots- und Beschäftigungseffekte. Zusätzlich wird ein Reformszenario simuliert, welches die Anreizstruktur imNiedriglohnbereich verbessern soll. Methodisch wird ein Mikrosimulationsmodell mit einem allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodell kombiniert. Dieses Vorgehen vereint die Vorteile der Mikrosimulation durch die detaillierte Berücksichtigung der Haushalte auf Basis der Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels mit den Vorteilen eines allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodells. So werden neben den Erstrundeneffekten auch Rückkopplungseffekte aufgrund von Preisänderungen mit eingeschlossen. Für die Hartz IV-Reform lässt sich auf Basis der Simulationsergebnisse ein geringfügiger Beschäftigungsgewinn in Höhe von 45.000 Personen quantifizieren. Demgegenüber errechnet sich für das alternative Szenario, welches eine Absenkung der Regelsätze sowie der Transferentzugsquote vorsieht, ein Beschäftigungsgewinn von 190.000 Personen

Reformen im Niedriglohnsektor: Eine integrierte CGE-Mikrosimulationsstudie der Arbeitsangebots- und Beschäftigungseffekte

Ziel dieses Beitrags ist die Quantifizierung der mit der Einführung des Arbeitslosengeldes II verbundenen Arbeitsangebots- und Beschäftigungseffekte. Zusätzlich wird ein Reformszenario simuliert, welches die Anreizstruktur im Niedriglohnbereich verbessern soll. Methodisch wird ein Mikrosimulationsmodell mit einem allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodell kombiniert. Dieses Vorgehen vereint die Vorteile der Mikrosimulation durch die detaillierte Berücksichtigung der Haushalte auf Basis der Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels mit den Vorteilen eines allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodells. So werden neben den Erstrundeneffekten auch Rückkopplungseffekte aufgrund von Preisänderungen mit eingeschlossen. Für die Hartz IV-Reform lässt sich auf Basis der Simulationsergebnisse ein geringfügiger Beschäftigungsgewinn in Höhe von 45.000 Personen quantifizieren. Demgegenüber errechnet sich für das alternative Szenario, welches eine Absenkung der Regelsätze sowie der Transferentzugsquote vorsieht, ein Beschäftigungsgewinn von 190.000 Personen. --Mikrosimulation,CGE-Modelle,Arbeitsangebot

Does online search improve the match quality of new hires?

This paper studies the effects of the high-speed internet expansion on the match quality of new hires. They combine data on internet availability at the local level with German individual register and vacancy data. Results show that internet availability has no major impact on the stability of new matches and their wages. The authors confirm these findings using vacancy data, by explicitly comparing match outcomes of online and non-online recruits. Further results show that online recruiting not only raises the number of applicants and the share of unsuitable candidates per vacancy, but also induces employers to post more vacancies

Unemployment effects of the German minimum wage in an equilibrium job search model

We structurally estimate an equilibrium search model using German administrative data and use this for counterfactual analyses of a uniform minimum wage. The model with worker and firm heterogeneity does not restrict the sign of employment effects a priori and allows for different job offer arrival rates for the employed and the unemployed. We find that unemployment is a non-monotonic function of the minimum wage level. Effects differ strongly by labour market segment. Cross-segment variation of the estimated effects is mostly driven by firm productivity levels rather than by search frictions or the opportunity cost of employment