Suchergebnisse

We present a combined, consistent microsimulation-AGE model that uses the labour market model PACE-L, data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and a discrete choice labour supply estimation. The model is used to analyse a reform that cuts the social assistance minimum income and lowers the transfer withdrawal rate in order to encourage labour force participation at the lower end of the wage distribution. We compare a disaggregated and an aggregated version of the model as well as a partial and a general equilibrium variant. It turns out that both disaggregation and general equilibrium feedback tend to mitigate the labour supply response to the reform proposal. While some labour supply indicators react quite sensitively to the level of aggregation, most macroeconomic variables are considerably more robust.

By examining the destination choice patterns of heterogenous labor, this paper tries to explain the skill composition of internal job matching flows in Germany. Estimates from a nested logit model of destination choice suggest that spatial job matching patterns by high-skilled individuals are mainly driven by interregional income differentials, while interregional job matches by less-skilled individuals are much more affected by regional differentials in job opportunities. Regional differentials in non-pecuniary assets slightly contribute to spatial sorting processes in Germany. Such differences in destination choices by skill level are partly modified by different spatial patterns of job-to-job matches and job matches after unemployment. Simulating job matching patterns in a scenario of economic convergence between eastern and western Germany demonstrates that wage convergence is the most effective means of attracting human capital to eastern Germany.

Regarding social needs in Germany long-term care is an important issue due to an ageing population. Shrinking social networks are leading to a greater need for a public long-term care system. In 1995 the social long-term care insurance was introduced in Germany which is similar in nature to the other social insurances, such as the health care or pension insurance. Long-term care insurance funds are generally linked to health insurance funds. The benefits are financed by virtue of an income-based system where all employees covered by the social security system and their employers have to pay equal contributions on a pay-as-you-go basis. In case of long-term care needs a frail person is assigned to one of three care levels according to his/her severity of need. Benefit recipients living in private households can choose between three kinds of transfers: in-kind transfers, lump-sum transfers and combined transfers whereas the amount of in-kind transfers is higher than the lump-sum transfers in all care levels. Benefit recipients living in nursing homes receive the highest amount of transfers. In recent years some drawbacks of the social long-term care insurance structure turned out to be in need of reform: While health insurance is a fully comprehensive system, long-term care insurance only provides limited cover. Therefore, insurance funds have an incentive to shift some services from health care to long-term care insurance. For instance, there is a low incentive to provide rehabilitation measures in order to lower the care level. Additionally, there is no free competition on the long-term care market because care packages included in the in-kind transfers are negotiated (with respect to services and prices) between insurance funds and professional care providers. Finally, the financial situation of the German social long-term care insurance is tight...

Using a competing-risk framework of exiting unemployment to jobs in a local or a distant labor market area, this paper investigates whether unemployed individuals in West Germany choose search strategies that favor migrating out of declining regions. Moreover, the paper investigates how such search strategies are affected by the local accommodation of labor market programs. Such programs have been suggested to lead to a regional locking-in effect. Empirical results are obtained from a stratified Cox partial likelihood proportional hazards model that allows for location-specific fixed effects and are compared to estimates from a parametric log-logistic hazard model that takes account of unobserved individual heterogeneity. The findings indicate that unemployed in West Germany are responsive to local labor market conditions and are more likely to leave regions with unfavorable re-employment opportunities. No locking-in effect from labor market programs is found. The probability of migration is found to increase with search time.

Internal migration rates in Germany are relatively low in international comparison. Identifying obstacles to interregional mobility is thus of major policy concern because the geographic mobility of labour may contribute to higher overall economic growth as well as a reduction of interregional employment disparities. This article presents a number of findings from a research project that aims at identifying institutional factors that reduce geographic mobility among unemployed jobseekers in Germany and that, at the same time, may also contribute to explaining the large gap in internal migration rates between qualified and unqualified workers. The findings indicate that a generous unemployment benefit system contributes to the observed phenomena. Workfare programs that reduce the partially high wage replacement rates among low-qualified unemployed might thus result in higher levels of internal migration in Germany.

By examining the destination choices of heterogeneous labour, this paper tries to explain the skill composition of interregional job matching flows in Germany. The paper thus provides insights on how policy can affect the spatial allocation of human capital to promote convergence between regions such as eastern and western Germany. Estimates from a nested logit model of destination choice suggest that the spatial pattern of job moves by high-skilled individuals are mainly driven by interregional income differentials, while interregional job matches by less-skilled individuals are mainly determined by interregional differentials in job opportunities. Interregional differentials in non-pecuniary assets only slightly contribute to the spatial sorting of skills and are partly driven by different spatial patterns of job-to-job matches and job matches after unemployment.

Using a competing-risk framework of exiting unemployment to jobs in a local or a distant labor market area, this paper investigates whether unemployed individuals in West Germany choose search strategies that favor migrating out of declining regions. Moreover, the paper investigates how such search strategies are affected by the local accommodation of labor market programs. Such programs have been suggested to lead to a regional locking-in effect. Empirical results are obtained from a stratified Cox partial likelihood proportional hazards model that allows for location-specific fixed effects and are compared to estimates from a parametric log-logistic hazard model that takes account of unobserved individual heterogeneity. The findings indicate that unemployed in West Germany are responsive to local labor market conditions and are more likely to leave regions with unfavorable re-employment opportunities. No locking-in effect from labor market programs is found. The probability of migration is found to increase with search time.

Recent labor market reforms in Germany aim, among other things, at reducing unemployment by restricting passive unemployment measures, emphasizing local labor market policies and re-structuring public employment services. This paper uses extensive individual administrative and regional aggregate data to explore the extent to which these factors are likely to contribute to the shortening of unemployment duration. For this purpose, we estimate a semi-parametric duration model with three competing exit states. Our results suggest that changes in the unemployment compensation system rather than local employment policies and administrative restructuring efforts meet expected labor market outcomes. In addition, determinants of the length of unemployment vary across exit states.