We revisit the puzzling finding that labour market performance appears to deteriorate, as suggested by negative time trends in empirical matching functions. We investigate whether these trends simply arise from omitted variable bias. Concretely, we consider the omission of job seekers beyond the...

This paper aims at explaining the dynamics of labor markets in Spain, especially the high persistence of unemployment and the Beveridge curve. We build a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium matching model, which assumes failures in the matching between vacancies and unemployed. We calibrate...

This paper studies individual log real wage change of east and west Germans over the period 1990/91 to 1995/96 using data from the German Socio-economic Panel. Parameters are estimated by median regression. Human capital theory and job mobility theories have implications for wage changes that...

Often the high level of unemployment in Germany is explained by a lack of flexibility, over-regulation in the labour market and disincentives of the social security system. However, these institutional effects are difficult to test by means of data from only one country. Cross-country...

Substantial evidence shows that North Americans are generally more accepting of the market than Europeans and attribute market outcomes to a larger degree to effort or skill. This article discusses the perceived fairness of layoffs and pay cuts in North America and Germany. We expect North...

This paper studies equilibrium unemployment in a two-region economy where homogeneous workers and jobs are free to move and the housing market clears. Because of the Internet, searching for a job in another region without first migrating there is nowadays much simpler than in the past....

In this paper we analyse the health effects of fixed-term contract status for men and women in West-Germany and Spain using panel data. This paper asks whether changes in the employment relationship, as a result of the liberalisation of employment law, have altered the positive health effects...

Die aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik nach dem Sozialgesetzbuch III wird aus Mitteln des Europäischen Sozialfonds im Rahmen des so genannten ESF-BAProgramms in der Zeit von 2000 bis 2008 ergänzt. Das Programm setzt bei verschiedenen Lücken der gesetzlichen Arbeitsförderung an. Im Bereich der...

Based on unique administrative data, which has only recently become available, this paper estimates the employment effects of the most important type of public sector sponsored training in Germany, namely the provision of specific professional skills and techniques (SPST). Using the inflows into...

Das Hamburger Modell zur Beschäftigungsförderung zielt darauf ab, Arbeitslose mit geringen Verdienstmöglichkeiten und schlechten Arbeitsmarktchancen durch zeitlich befristete Zuschüsse, die sowohl den Teilnehmern an der Maßnahme als auch den Arbeitgebern gewährt werden, in den regulären...