Wage Subsidies, Work Incentives, and the Reform of the Austrian Welfare System

We analyze the labor supply and income effects of a needs-based minimum benefit system ("Bedarfsorientierte Mindestsicherung") to be introduced in Austria by the end of this/beginning of next year. The aim of this reform is to reduce poverty as well as increasing employment rates of recipients of social assistance. On the basis of a behavioral microsimulation model we show that this new system will slightly increase incomes for the poorest households and slightly reduce labor supply due to the generous allowances for marginal employment under the current and the planned regulations of unemployment assistance. As an alternative, we analyze a reform proposal which reduces financial incentives for marginal employment not covered by social security, and rewards working longer hours by a wage subsidy. Although this alternative reform would yield modest positive labor supply effects, a relatively large number of households would suffer income losses.work incentives, labor supply, social safety system, microsimulation

Modelling heaping effects in unemployment duration models - with an application to retrospective event data in the German socio-economic panel

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Employment Effects of Publicly Financed Training Programs The East German Experience

We analyze the effectiveness of publicly financed training and retraining programs in east Germany as measured by their effects on individual re-employment probabilities after training. These are estimated by discrete hazard rate models on the basis of individual-level panel data. We account for unobserved individual heterogeneity in both the training participation and outcome equation. The latter differentiates between transitions into "stable" and "unstable" employment after the completion of a training program. Our findings are that in the first phase of the east German transition process, when the institutions delivering the training programs were being set up, there are no positive effects of training on the probability to find stable employment. For the period of September 1992 to November 1994, when the institutional structure for the programs was in place, we find positive effects of both on?the?job and off?the?job training for women, and positive effects of off?the?job training for men. --publicly financed training,evaluation studies,employment effects,sample selection,east Germany

Do public works programs work? Some unpleasant results from the East German experience

We analyze the effectiveness of public works programs (PWP, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen) in east Germany as measured by their effects on individual future reemployment probabilities in regular jobs. These are estimated by discrete hazard rate models on the basis of individual?level panel data. We account for unobserved individual heterogeneity in both the PWP participation and in the outcome equations. In the latter, we differentiate between transitions into "stable" and "unstable" employment after the PWP. We find that these programs seem to have no special targeting focus on disadvantaged groups in the labor market and that participants are, on average, worse off concerning their re?employment prospects in regular jobs than unemployed people who do not join such a program. A possible explanation for this result is that PWP participants search less intensively for a regular job while on such a program than unemployed non-participants. Thus, our results cast serious doubts on both the effectiveness and the equity aspects of public works programs in east Germany. --public works programs,evaluation studies,employment effects,sample selection,east Germany

Wage subsidies, work incentives, and the reform of the Austrian welfare system

We analyze the labor supply and income effects of a needs-based minimum benefit system (“Bedarfsorientierte Mindestsicherung”) to be introduced in Austria by the end of this/beginning of next year. The aim of this reform is to reduce poverty as well as increasing employment rates of recipients of social assistance. On the basis of a behavioral microsimulation model we show that this new system will slightly increase incomes for the poorest households and slightly reduce labor supply due to the generous allowances for marginal employment under the current and the planned regulations of unemployment assistance. As an alternative, we analyze a reform proposal which reduces financial incentives for marginal employment not covered by social security, and rewards working longer hours by a wage subsidy. Although this alternative reform would yield modest positive labor supply effects, a relatively large number of households would suffer income losses

eine Mikrosimulationsanalyse der Aufkommens-, Beschäftigungs- und Verteilungswirkungen für Österreich

Der Beitrag analysiert die Aufkommens-, Beschäftigungs- und Verteilungswirkungen einer Reformalternative zur Entlastung von Arbeitseinkommen und zur Verbesserung der Effizienz des Steuersystems auf der Basis eines Mikrosimulationsmodells. Die Reformalternative beinhaltet einen Ausgleich der „kalten Progression“, eine Reduktion der Grenzsteuersätze und eine Steuervereinfachung bei gleichzeitiger Verbreiterung der Steuerbasis, eine Reform der Grundsicherung sowie verbesserte Arbeitsanreize im unteren Einkommensbereich. Die analysierte Reformalternative wäre trotz zu erwartender positiver Beschäftigungseffekte und nur geringer Umverteilungseffekte mit erheblichen fiskalischen Kosten verbunden. Auf der Basis der ersten Erhebung zur Vermögenslage österreichischer Haushalte, dem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) wird unter Vernachlässigung möglicher Ausweichreaktionen und zu erwartender Verteilungseffekte gezeigt, in welchem Umfang die fiskalischen Kosten der Reform durch alternative Vermögenssteuermodelle ausgeglichen werden könnten. Als Alternative zu einer Vermögenssteuer werden auch Möglichkeiten der Gegenfinanzierung durch Einsparungen bei den Staatsausgaben dargestellt

Interaction of infalling solid bodies with primordial atmospheres of disk-embedded planets

Planets that form early enough to be embedded in the circumstellar gas disk accumulate thick atmospheres of nebular gas. Models of these atmospheres need to specify the surface luminosity (i.e. energy loss rate) of the planet. This luminosity is usually associated with a continuous inflow of solid bodies, where the gravitational energy released from these bodies is the source of energy. However, if these bodies release energy in the atmosphere instead of at the surface, this assumption might not be justified. Our aim is to explore the interactions of infalling planetesimals with primordial atmospheres at an embedded phase of evolution. We investigate effects of atmospheric interaction on the planetesimals (mass loss) and the atmosphere (heating/cooling). We used atmospheric parameters from a snapshot of time-dependent evolution simulations for embedded atmospheres and simulated purely radial, infall events of siliceous planetesimals in a 1D, explicit code. We implemented energy transfer between friction, radiation transfer by the atmosphere and the body and thermal ablation; this gives us the possibility to examine the effects on the planetesimals and the atmosphere. We find that a significant amount of gravitational energy is indeed dissipated into the atmosphere, especially for larger planetary cores, which consequently cannot contribute to the atmospheric planetary luminosity. Furthermore, we examine that planetesimal infall events for cores, $M_\mathrm{C} > 2$M$_{\oplus}$, which actually result in a local cooling of the atmosphere; this is totally in contradiction with the classical model

Employment effects of publicly financed training programs : The East German experience

We analyze the effectiveness of publicly financed training and retraining programs in east Germany as measured by their effects on individual re-employment probabilities after training. These are estimated by discrete hazard rate models on the basis of individual-level panel data. We account for unobserved individual heterogeneity in both the training participation and outcome equation. The latter differentiates between transitions into "stable" and "unstable" employment after the completion of a training program. Our findings are that in the first phase of the east German transition process, when the institutions delivering the training programs were being set up, there are no positive effects of training on the probability to find stable employment. For the period of September 1992 to November 1994, when the institutional structure for the programs was in place, we find positive effects of both on–the–job and off–the–job training for women, and positive effects of off–the–job training for men