Employer wage subsidies and wages in Germany : some evidence from individual data

"In Germany, targeted wage subsidies to employers are an important instrument of active labor market policy. This paper utilizes process generated data of the German Public Employment Service to compare the wages of individuals taking up a subsidized job with those of otherwise similar individuals who found an unsubsidized job. The results indicate that subsidized jobs are not associated with gains or losses regarding daily wages, which might be contributed to wage setting within the German system of industrial relations. Nonetheless, because subsequent employment rates of subsidized persons are higher on average, we find a positive relationship between cumulated wages and subsidization." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Eingliederungszuschuss - Auswirkungen, Lohnkostenzuschuss - Erfolgskontrolle, arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme, Lohnhöhe, Beschäftigungsdauer

Wages, employment and tenure of temporarily subsidized workers: Does the industry matter? (Löhne, Beschäftigung und Betriebszugehörigkeitsdauer von zeitweise subventionierten Arbeitnehmern: Spielt die Industrie eine Rolle?)

"This paper explores whether wage, employment and tenure outcomes of workers taking up a job subsidized by the German Federal Employment Agency differ by industry. The analysis utilizes administrative data and statistical matching techniques; it covers an observation period of 3.5 years. First, we conduct a within-industry comparison of temporarily subsidized and otherwise similar unsubsidized workers. The findings show for most industries that subsidized workers had similar short-run wages, but fared significantly better in the longer run. Second, we compare labor market outcomes of subsidized workers within each industry with those of similar subsidized workers in other industries. The main result is that cumulated wages of workers would not have differed significantly, if they had been hired in another industry instead. However, we find significant differences in short-term wages, employment and tenure outcomes across industries. Finally, from a fiscal point of view it seems more advantageous to subsidize workers hired in industries that are less subject to demand fluctuations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Eingliederungszuschuss - Erfolgskontrolle, Lohnhöhe, Beschäftigungsdauer, Wirtschaftszweige, Betriebszugehörigkeit - Dauer

The effects of active labor market programs in Germany : an investigation using different definitions of non-treatment

"This paper estimates the effects of several German labor market programs - starting in March 2003 - on the employment outcomes of participants using propensity score matching. The main objective is to compare estimated average treatment effects for treatment and comparison groups, which vary in the choice of the classification window that defines treatment and non-treatment. The first approach does not put any restrictions on the future of the treated as well as of the comparison group. This approach has become more and more common in the evaluation of European labor market policies. In contrast, the second approach considers only potential comparison group members, who have not entered any labor market program during the entire observation period of 3 1/2 years. The third approach additionally restricts itself to participants, who have not participated in further labor market programs during the observation period. The results differ considerably; program effectiveness is estimated to be much lower using the second approach. The paper highlights the fact that program careers are a non-trivial issue that deserves more attention in future research." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Wirkungsforschung - Methode, Forschungsansatz, Arbeitsmarktforschung, Teilnehmer - Begriff, arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme - Erfolgskontrolle, Weiterbildung, Trainingsmaßnahme, Eingliederungszuschuss, Überbrückungsgeld, Existenzgründungszuschuss, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahme, Strukturanpassungsmaßnahme, Arbeitsgelegenheit, private Arbeitsvermittlung, Personal-Service-Agentur, Hartz-Reform

Collective contracts, wages and wage dispersion in a multi-level model

"The authors use German linked employer-employee data for the years 1990, 1995 and 2001 to analyze, which dimensions of wage setting differ across three wage-setting regimes: Establishments applying sectoral collective contracts, establishments with firm-level contracts and uncovered establishments. The empirical analysis is restricted to workers without supervisory functions in larger manufacturing firms and shows that for this group of workers base wages are higher in firms applying collective contracts, while returns to human capital and the gender wage gap are reduced. Moreover, during the nineties these effects have become stronger." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Tarifvertrag, Lohnstruktur, Lohnfindung, Flächentarifvertrag, Firmentarifvertrag, Tariflohn, Lohnhöhe, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren

A pairwise comparison of the effectiveness of selected active labour market programmes in Germany

"For Germany, our study estimates average effects of further vocational training, short training and job creation schemes on the employment prospects of participants. We compare participation in each programme with non-participation as well as with participation in one of the other programmes. Outcome variables are cumulated days spent in regular employment during the 3.5 years after programme start as well as the share in regular employment at the end of the observation period. First, our results show rather favourable effects of participation in further vocational training programmes and in short firm-internal training - but not of participation in job creation schemes - on the employment prospects of participants. Second, as a result of shorter lock-in effects, shorter programmes perform mostly better when estimating programme effects on days in cumulated employment. However, regarding shares in regular employment at the end of the observation period, in particular long retraining shows positive effects compared to shorter programmes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme - Erfolgskontrolle, Weiterbildung, Trainingsmaßnahme, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahme, Umschulung, Arbeitsmarktchancen, Teilnehmer, Beschäftigungsdauer, arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme - Dauer

The Relative Effectiveness of Selected Active Labour Market Programmes and the Common Support Problem

For Germany, we analyse the (relative) effects of participation in several active labour market programmes on the employment prospects of participants. First, our results show that different matching algorithms result in different severe problems of common support. Second, we obtain favourable effects of participation in training programmes, which is not true for job creation schemes. Third, while lock-in effects are smaller for shorter programmes, long retraining shows mainly positive effects compared to shorter training at the end of the observation period. Fourth, participants in job creation schemes are too different from participants in training programmes to conduct a reliable comparison.evaluation of active labour market programmes, propensity score matching, common support problem

How collective contracts and works councils reduce the gender wage gap

"The gender wage gap in Germany is smaller in firms covered by collective contracts or having a works council, partly because these institutions are associated with lower unobserved productivity differences and less wage discrimination, partly because they compress the distribution of wage residuals." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Lohnunterschied, Männer, Frauen, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, Tarifvertrag - Auswirkungen, Betriebsrat - Auswirkungen, Lohndifferenzierung, Lohndiskriminierung, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz

Wage distributions by wage-setting regime

"Collective wage contracts impose restrictions on wage-setting. We utilize German linked employer-employee data for blue-collar worker to compute the dispersion of wages and wage components within and across firms under three different wage-setting regimes: Establishments applying sectoral collective contracts, establishments with firm-level contracts and uncovered establishments. The empirical analysis confirms a lower dispersion of wages and wage components for firms applying sectoral collective contracts compared to companies in the other two wage-setting regimes. Implications for policy are discussed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Lohnstruktur, Tarifvertrag, Firmentarifvertrag, Tarifbindung

Participation of unemployment benefit recipients in active labor market programs : before and after the German labor market reforms

"Between 2005 and 2007 the German government raised a per-capita amount of around 10.000 Euros for each transition out of unemployment benefit receipt into basic social care, to be paid by the unemployment insurance. The so called 'Aussteuerungsbetrag' set strong incentives that investments in active labor market programs for unemployment benefit recipients should pay off - in terms of an exit from registered unemployment - before a transition into basic social care for needy jobseekers occurred. This raised considerable public concerns that less programs would be granted, in particular for hard-to-place workers. Our paper analyzes if these concerns were justified. We compare four cohorts, eligible for unemployment benefits at the beginning of their unemployment spell during March of the years 2003 to 2006. We conduct some descriptive analyses and estimate piecewise constant exponential hazard models to investigate the correlation between individual characteristics and transition rates into programs. The results show that transition rates into programs were in fact low across the 2005 cohort, but rather high for the 2006 cohort. The expectation that particular disadvantaged groups of unemployed would participate less in active labor market programs in the postreform period is not confirmed; their transition rates into programs were significantly higher across the 2006 cohort than in pre-reform cohorts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme - Zu- und Abgänge, Hartz-Reform - Erfolgskontrolle, Aussteuerungsbetrag - Auswirkungen, Teilnehmerstruktur, Arbeitslose, schwervermittelbare Arbeitslose

Individual tenure and collective contracts

"The paper analyses the relationship between individual tenure and the application of collective contracts at the firm level, using a multi-level model and a German linked employer-employee data set for the years 1990, 1995 and 2001. The main result is that elapsed tenure is longer in firms applying collective contracts than in companies with individual wage-setting. Thus workers in firms with collective contracts benefit not only from higher wages, but also from higher job stability. Furthermore, we find no significant changes in mean tenure during the nineties as well as stable differences across wage-setting regimes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Betriebszugehörigkeit - Dauer, Firmentarifvertrag, Tarifbindung, Arbeitsplatzsicherheit, Lohnhöhe