Before and After the Hartz Reforms: The Performance of Active Labour Market Policy in Germany

Having faced high unemployment rates for more than a decade, the German government implemented a comprehensive set of labour market reforms during the period 2003-2005. This paper describes the economic and institutional context of the German labour market before and after these so-called Hartz reforms.Focussing on active policy measures,we delineate the rationale for reform and its main principles.As results of programme evaluation studies post-reform have become available just now, we give a first assessment of the effectiveness of key elements of German ALMP before and after the Hartz reforms. The evidence indicates that the re-organisation of public employment services was mainly successful, with the exception of the outsourcing of services. Re-designing training programmes seems to have improved their effectiveness, while job creation schemes continue to be detrimental for participants’ employment prospects. Wage subsidies and start-up subsidies show significantly positive effects.On balance, therefore, the reform seems to be moving the German labour market in the right direction.Active labour market policy, labour market reform, programme evaluation, Hartz laws

Does Marginal Employment Substitute Regular Employment? – A Heterogeneous Dynamic Labor Demand Approach for Germany

In Germany we observe a decline in regular employment and an increase in atypical forms of employment. Especially marginal part-time employment which is characterized by lower tax rates and lower social security contributions increased substantially after a reform in 2003 made this type of employment even more attractive to employers. In our paper we estimate the substitutability of regular employment by marginal part-time employment using data on the industry level before and after the reform.We detect high substitution elasticities with respect to three skill categories of regular employment in both time periods. The substitutability of unskilled full-time workers increased significantly after the reform.Mini-Jobs, dynamic labor demand, elasticities, Hartz-reforms

Before and after the Hartz reforms: The performance of active labour market policy in Germany

"Having faced high unemployment rates for more than a decade, the German government implemented a comprehensive set of labour market reforms during the period 2003-2005. This paper describes the economic and institutional context of the German labour market before and after these so-called Hartz reforms. Focussing on active policy measures, we delineate the rationale for reform and its main principles. As preliminary results of programme evaluation studies post-reform have become available just now, we give a first assessment of the effectiveness of key elements of German active labour market policy before and after the Hartz reforms. The evidence indicates that the re-organisation of public employment services was mainly successful, with the exception of the outsourcing of services. Re-designing training programmes seems to have improved their effectiveness, while job creation schemes continue to be detrimental for participants' employment prospects. Wage subsidies and start-up subsidies show significantly positive effects. On balance, therefore, the reform seems to be moving the German labour market in the right direction." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Arbeitsmarktpolitik - Erfolgskontrolle, Hartz-Reform, Bundesagentur für Arbeit - Organisation, Weiterbildungsförderung, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahme, aktivierende Arbeitsmarktpolitik, Deregulierung, Lohnsubvention, Existenzgründungszuschuss

German Wage Moderation and European Imbalances: Feeding the Global VAR with Theory

German labor market reforms in the 1990s and 2000s are generally believed to have driven the large increase in the dispersion of current account balances in the Euro Area. We investigate this hypothesis quantitatively. We develop a 3-region open economy New Keynesian model with search and matching frictions from which we derive robust sign restrictions for wage bargaining and matching efficiency shocks which we term wage moderation shocks. We impose these restrictions on a Global VAR consisting of Germany and 8 EMU countries to identify a wage moderation shock in Germany. Our results show that, although the German current account was significantly affected by wage moderation shocks, their contribution to European current account imbalances was negligible. We conclude that the German labor market reforms cannot be the lone driver of European imbalances

Clinical and virological characteristics of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in a German tertiary care centre during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a prospective observational study

Purpose: Adequate patient allocation is pivotal for optimal resource management in strained healthcare systems, and requires detailed knowledge of clinical and virological disease trajectories. The purpose of this work was to identify risk factors associated with need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), to analyse viral kinetics in patients with and without IMV and to provide a comprehensive description of clinical course. Methods: A cohort of 168 hospitalised adult COVID-19 patients enrolled in a prospective observational study at a large European tertiary care centre was analysed. Results: Forty-four per cent (71/161) of patients required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Shorter duration of symptoms before admission (aOR 1.22 per day less, 95% CI 1.10-1.37, p < 0.01) and history of hypertension (aOR 5.55, 95% CI 2.00-16.82, p < 0.01) were associated with need for IMV. Patients on IMV had higher maximal concentrations, slower decline rates, and longer shedding of SARS-CoV-2 than non-IMV patients (33 days, IQR 26-46.75, vs 18 days, IQR 16-46.75, respectively, p < 0.01). Median duration of hospitalisation was 9 days (IQR 6-15.5) for non-IMV and 49.5 days (IQR 36.8-82.5) for IMV patients. Conclusions: Our results indicate a short duration of symptoms before admission as a risk factor for severe disease that merits further investigation and different viral load kinetics in severely affected patients. Median duration of hospitalisation of IMV patients was longer than described for acute respiratory distress syndrome unrelated to COVID-19

Die Dunkelziffer der Armut - eine Analyse der Nichtinanspruchnahme von Sozialhilfe in Deutschland

"In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll Aufschluss über die Motivationen zum Verzicht auf Sozialhilfe gewonnen werden. Darüber hinaus soll der Wissensstand über Ausmaß und demographischen Struktur der Armut durch Nichtinanspruchnahme aktualisiert werden. Die Analyse basiert auf Daten aus dem Jahr 2001 des Sozio-ökonomischen Panels (SOEP) des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung." (Autorenreferat

Die erleichterte Befristung älterer Arbeitnehmer/innen – Eine Evaluation mit Daten des Mikrozensus

Kausalanalyse, Differenz-von-Differenzen, Beschäftigung Älterer , Causal effect, Difference-in-differences, Employment of elderly ,