Suchergebnisse

Der demografische Wandel und die damit verbundene Alterung der Gesellschaft stellt das gesamte Wirtschaftssystem vor Herausforderungen, die eine Anpassung der wirtschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen (Strukturreformen) notwendig machen. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Studie von Enderlein und Pisani-Ferry (2014) eine Reihe von konkreten Reformvorschlägen für Deutschland formuliert. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, eine Auswahl der vorgeschlagenen Maßnahmen auf Basis eines mikrofundierten gesamtwirtschaftlichen Modells mit heterogenen Haushalten zu evaluieren. Weiterhin soll diese Studie der Politik helfen, solche Reformen oder Reformpakete zu identifizieren, die Beschäftigung und Löhne in Deutschland steigern ("Mehr und bessere Arbeit") und gleichzeitig die öffentlichen Haushalte langfristig nicht belasten ("Fiskalische Effizienz").1 Die in der vorliegenden Studie zu untersuchenden Reformen sind: - Öffentliches Investitionsprogramm zum Ausbau der Ganztagsbetreuung für Kinder; - Verbesserung der steuerlichen Behandlung von Kinderbetreuungskosten; - Reform der Sozialversicherungsbeiträge im Niedriglohnbereich; - Steuerung der Zuwanderung nach Qualifikation durch ein Punktesystem; - Deregulierung im Bereich der unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleister; - Verbesserung der Finanzierungsmöglichkeiten kleinerer und mittlerer Unternehmen (KMU). Gegenstand dieser Studie ist nicht nur die Evaluation einzelner Reformvorschläge, sondern auch der Vergleich der Wirksamkeit und Effizienz verschiedener Reformen. Um die Vergleichbarkeit zu garantieren, wird die Analyse in einem einheitlichen Modellrahmen durchgeführt. Dies erfordert die Entwicklung eines neuartigen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Modells, das verschiedene Elemente aus der Makroökonomik und der Arbeitsmarktökonomik in kohärenter Weise integriert. Eine detaillierte Beschreibung des hier verwendeten Modellrahmens erfolgt in Kapitel 4 und im Anhang.

In 2003-05 the German government implemented a number of far-reaching labor market reforms, the so-called Hartz reforms. At the heart of the reform package was the Hartz IV law, which resulted in a significant cut in the unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. The paper develops a macroeconomic model with search and incomplete markets, calibrates the model economy to German data and institutions, and uses the calibrated model economy to simulate the effects of the Hartz reforms, and in particular Hartz IV, on the German labor market. The paper finds that the Hartz IV reform reduced the noncyclical unemployment rate in Germany by 1.4 percentage points. Employed workers benefited from the Hartz IV reform in welfare terms, but unemployed workers lost. It further finds that the Hartz I-III reforms reduced the noncyclical unemployment rate in Germany by 1.5 percentage points. Finally, the authors' analysis suggests that the Hartz reforms contributed to the good performance of the German labor market during the Great Recession.

In 2005 the German government implemented the so-called Hartz IV reform, which amounted to a complete overhaul of the German unemployment insurance system and resulted in a significant reduction in unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. In this paper, we use an incomplete-market model with search unemployment to evaluate the macro-economic and welfare effects of the Hartz IV reform. We calibrate the model economy to German data before the reform and then use the calibrated model economy to simulate the effects of Hartz IV. In our baseline calibration, we find that the reform has reduced the long-run (noncyclical)unemployment rate in Germany by 1.4 percentage points. We also find that the welfare of employed households increases, but the welfare of unemployed households decreases even with moderate degree of risk aversion.

We develop a tractable macroeconomic model with employment risk and labor market search in order evaluate the effects of labor market reform on unemployment, growth, and welfare. The model has a large number of risk-averse households who can invest in risk-free physical capital and risky human capital. Unemployed households receive unemployment benefits and decide how much search effort to exert. We present a theoretical characterization result that facilitates the computation of equilibria substantially. We calibrate the model to German data and use the calibrated model economy to simulate the macroeconomic effects of the German labor market reforms of 2005 and 2006 (Hartz Reforms). We find that the 2005-reform had large employment effects: the equilibrium unemployment rate has been reduced by approximately 1.1 percentage points from 7.5 to 6.4 percent. Moreover, the drop in unemployment has led to substantial output gains. Finally, employed and short-term unemployed households experienced significant welfare gains, whereas the long-term unemployed have lost in welfare terms. The effects of the 2006-reform are qualitatively similar, but quantitatively much smaller. We also show that the social welfare maximizing replacement rate is lower than the current (post-reform) replacement rate in Germany. However, implementing the optimal unemployment benefit system generates only small welfare gains.