This paper exploits that the Covid-19 pandemic came as an unexpected shock that temporarily reduced the ratio of vacancies to seekers. We use this unique setting to understand the importance of job opportunities for the impact of unemployment on workers’ careers. Compared to individuals who...

Wer einen erwerbsbedingten Abgang aus dem Bezug von Arbeitslosengeld II schafft und was andere daran hindert, eine bedarfsdeckende Erwerbstätigkeit aufzunehmen, ist eine wesentliche Frage für Praxis und Forschung. Anhand der Daten des Panels Arbeitsmarkt und soziale Sicherung (PASS) lässt...

Following massive take-up rates during the COVID-19 period, short-time work (STW) policies have attracted renewed interest. In this paper, we take stock of this policy instrument and provide a critical review of STW systems in Europe. We focus on the objectives of STW programs and their primary...

Arbeitslosengeld-II-Beziehende sind grundsätzlich verpflichtet, Anstrengungen zu unternehmen, um ihren Leistungsbezug zu beenden oder zu verringern. Dazu zählt die Pflicht zur Arbeitssuche und Teilnahme an angebotenen Maßnahmen der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik. Eine Ausnahme von dieser...

Optimal insurance benefit design requires understanding how coverage generosity impacts individual behavior, insured costs, and welfare. Using unique administrative data, we leverage a sharp increase in the maximum weekly wage replacement benefit in a difference-in-differences research design to...

Short-time work - a wage subsidy conditional on hour reductions - has become an important tool of labor market policy in many European countries. As the scope of these policies expanded, concerns about side effects due to adverse selection increased. We develop a model of job retention policies...

Nearly every state has amended workers’ compensation laws in the last two decades and the national averages of cash and medical benefits paid per covered worker have declined. As a result, writers have suggested that the states might be cutting back on workers’ compensation benefits. We show...

Short-time work - a wage subsidy conditional on hour reductions - has become an important tool of labor market policy in many European countries. As the scope of these policies expanded, concerns about side effects due to adverse selection increased. We develop a model of job retention policies...

The job finding rate of Unemployment Insurance (UI) recipients declines in the initial months of unemployment and then exhibits a spike at the benefit exhaustion point. A range of theoretical explanations have been proposed, but those are hard to disentangle using data on job finding alone. To...

Die Bundesregierung will das System der Grundsicherung für Arbeitsfähige radikal reformieren. Neben der Abschaffung des Vermittlungsvorrangs und der Stärkung der Qualifizierung will sie vor allem die Zuverdienstmöglichkeiten für Hilfeempfänger:innen verbessern. Fachleute zerbrechen sich...

We document the sources behind the costs of job loss over the business cycle using administrative data from Germany. Losses in annual earnings after displacement are large, persistent, and highly cyclical, nearly doubling in size during downturns. A large part of the long-term earnings losses...

Microsimulation models have been particularly useful when dealing with the economic welfare impact of COVID-19, particularly since such models offer a way to obtain timely and policy-relevant information in the absence of detailed household-level survey data. This study uses EUROMOD, a static...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic and technological adjustment increased the risk of unemployment, underemployment and skills mismatch across Europe. These increased risks highlighted the importance of national unemployment benefit schemes for income security. This article examines...

In this article, we discuss reform elements of "Hartz IV". This includes, on the one hand, merging unemployment benefits with housing benefits and the additional child benefits (Kinderzuschlag) and, on the other hand, reducing disincentives which prevent the recipients from earning higher...

We document the sources behind the costs of job loss over the business cycle using administrative data from Germany. Losses in annual earnings after displacement are large, persistent, and highly cyclical, nearly doubling in size during downturns. A large part of the long-term earnings losses...

Die finanzielle Situation pflegender Angehöriger in Deutschland ist zunehmend in den Fokus des öffentlichen Interesses gerückt, dabei wird insbesondere das erhöhte Armutsrisiko informell Pflegender kritisch diskutiert. Gleichzeitig zeichnet sich ab, dass die Bedeutung informeller Pflege...

We examine racial discrimination in the New Deal by examining access to work relief. The Federal Government prohibited racial discrimination in work relief programs. However, eligibility was determined by local and state administrators. We estimate Black-white gaps in work relief access...

We document that nearly half of US public firms were eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in 2020, with 41.8% of those eligible choosing to borrow. Consistent with the program's objectives, borrowers tended to be smaller with less cash, higher leverage, and fewer investment...

The lockdown and other restrictive measures introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic recession have had a strong impact on labour markets worldwide. As far as the European Union (EU) is concerned, the accelerated fall in total employment was the ‘sharpest decline ever...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) increased US unemployment benefits by $600 a week. Theory predicts that FPUC will decrease job applications, and could decrease vacancy creation. We estimate the effect of FPUC on job applications and vacancy...

We investigate the optimal response of unemployment insurance to economic shocks, both with and without commitment. The optimal policy with commitment follows a modified Baily-Chetty formula that accounts for job search responses to future UI benefit changes. As a result, the optimal policy with...

The goal of this paper is to establish if unemployment insurance policies are more generous in Europe than in the United States, and by how much. We take the examples of France and one particular American state, Ohio, and use the methodology of Pallage, Scruggs and Zimmermann (2008) to find a...

In this paper, we develop a methodology to summarize the various policy parameters of an unemployment insurance scheme into a single generosity parameter. Unemployment insurance policies are multdimensional objects. They are typically defined by waiting periods, eligibility duration, benefit...

Utilizing data from the June Current Population Survey (CPS) Fertility Supplement merged with data from other months of the CPS, we describe trends in parents' employment and leave-taking after birth of a newborn and analyze the extent to which these behaviors are associated with parental leave...

This paper analyses the job retention schemes (JRS) implemented in response to the Covid-19 crisis, showing quantitative trends and differences in terms of expenditure on the schemes and the number of workers involved.The key focus is on a qualitative analysis of the schemes’ key properties....

This paper analyses the job retention schemes implemented in response to the Covid-19 crisis, showing quantitative trends and differences in terms of expenditure on the schemes and the number of workers involved. The key focus is on a qualitative analysis of the schemes' key properties. In order...

We investigate the optimal response of unemployment insurance to economic shocks, both with and without commitment. The optimal policy with commitment follows a modified Baily-Chetty formula that accounts for job search responses to future UI benefit changes. As a result, the optimal policy with...

In der Corona-Pandemie werden durch Kurzarbeit und weitere Hilfsmaßnahmen ganze Branchen stabilisiert. Dies gilt insbesondere für die stark betroffene Gastronomie. Kurzarbeit sichert bedrohte Arbeitsverhältnisse und dämpft Einkommenseinbußen, die bei Verlust des Arbeitsplatzes eintreten...

The lockdown and other restrictive measures introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic recession have had a strong impact on labour markets worldwide. As far as the European Union (EU) is concerned, the accelerated fall in total employment was the ‘sharpest decline ever...

In der Öffentlichkeit wird seit einiger Zeit verstärkt eine grundlegende Reform des Sozialsystems in Deutschland diskutiert, deren Forderungen bis hin zur Einführung eines bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens gehen. Hintergrund sind zum einen zahlreiche Kritikpunkte am bestehenden System der...

Während auf europäischer Ebene eine Stärkung von Mindestsicherungssystemen im Rahmen der Umsetzung der Europäischen Säule sozialer Rechte diskutiert wird, ist die deutsche Diskussion im Vorfeld der Bundestagswahl 2021 durch unterschiedlich weitreichende Vorschläge zur Reform des...

Die Stellungnahme bewertet die beiden Anträge (zu Mindest-Kurzarbeitergeld und QualifizierungsKurzarbeit), die bei der öffentlichen Anhörung des Ausschusses für Arbeit und Soziales des Deutschen Bundestags am 1.3.2021 behandelt wurden. Im Vergleich zum ersten Antrag und zur aktuell geltenden...