Does the low wage sector serve as a stepping stone towards integration into better-paid jobs or at least towards integration of jobless people into employment? There is evidence for a 'low-wage trap' and for a high risk of low-wage earners to get unemployed, but this may also be due to sorting...

In der Studie wird untersucht, wie innerbetriebliche Übergänge aus Arbeitsgelegenheiten mit Mehraufwandsentschädigung in ungeförderte sozialversicherungspflichtige Beschäftigung (Klebeeffekte) entstehen. Zunächst werden die Gründe erörtert, warum die direkte Beschäftigungsintegration...

Using a search theoretical model, we analyse the effects of the information flow via social networks (friends, relatives and other personal contacts) by comparing monetary and non-monetary outcomes in obtaining jobs via networks versus formal methods. Propensity-score matching on survey data...

This paper focuses on the question of whether improving the competence of new business founders by means of coaching and training programs enhances the duration of self-employment. In our analysis we focus on support activities that are provided in addition to a financial subsidy and which...

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Bedeutung der Vermittlungsfachkräfte für die Umsetzung von Reformen innerhalb der Bundesagentur für Arbeit. Zum einen wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie Arbeitsvermittler die Neuausrichtung des Geschäftssystems, in dem sie sich bewegen, beurteilen. Zum...

We study a two-sector economy with investments in human and physical capital and imperfect labor markets. Human and physical capital are heterogeneous. Workers and firms endogenously select the sector they are active in and choose the amount of their sector-specific investments. To enter the...

Vor der Industrialisierung hatten traditionelle Gemeinschaften - Familien, dörfliche Nachbarschaften und lokale religiöse Vereinigungen - die Aufgabe, ihre Mitglieder vor sozialen Risiken wie Armut zu schützen. Die Industrialisierung produzierte jedoch neue Risiken und verallgemeinerte die...

The geographical distribution and persistence of regional/local unemployment rates in heterogeneous economies (such as Germany) have been, in recent years, the subject of various theoretical and empirical studies. Several researchers have shown an interest in analysing the dynamic adjustment...

We analyse the role that education signals play in the transition rates from unemployment to finding a job. We compare the results for Ethnic Germans with those for foreigners from the same origin countries and Native Germans. In the first case, the two have the same labour market access but...

We present first estimates of rates of non-take-up for social assistance in Germany after the implementation of major social policy reforms in 2005. The analysis is based on a microsimulation model, which includes a detailed description of the German social assistance programme. Our findings...