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Die Dissertation verknüpft empirische Analysen zur Wirkung von Arbeitszeitverlängerungen, zum Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitszeitkonten und einer Auswahl betrieblicher Indikatoren und zum Effekt der Teilzeitansprüche auf den betrieblichen Einsatz Teilzeitbeschäftigter. Gestützt auf Daten des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) und des Forschungsdatenzentrums (FDZ) der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, untersucht Autor Hans-Dieter Gerner aktuelle arbeitszeitpolitische Schlüsselfragen, zu denen bisher nur sehr begrenzte empirische Befunde vorliegen: - Welche Folgen haben verlängerte Wochenarbeitszeiten für die Beschäftigung? - Wie wirken sich Arbeitszeitkonten auf die Effizienz, die Gewinnsituation und die Beschäftigungsentwicklung von Betrieben aus? - Welche Auswirkungen hatte die Einführung eines gesetzlichen Teilzeitanspruchs im Jahre 2001 auf die Entwicklung der Teilzeitbeschäftigung?

This dissertation combines empirical analyses of the effects of longer working hours with the dependencies of time bank hours and a number of business indicators and the impact of entitlements to part-time work on the actual company deployment of part-time workers. Based on data collected by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Research Data Centre (FDZ) and the German Federal Employment Agency, the book looks at current key questions about labour time policies, on which topic there have been very few empirical studies so far: What are the consequences of extended weekly working hours for employees? What is the impact of time bank hours on efficiency, the profit situation and staff development in companies? What are the results of the introduction of a legal entitlement to part-time employment, in the year 2001, on the development of part-time employment in general?

Die Dissertation verknüpft empirische Analysen zur Wirkung von Arbeitszeitverlängerungen, zum Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitszeitkonten und einer Auswahl betrieblicher Indikatoren und zum Effekt der Teilzeitansprüche auf den betrieblichen Einsatz Teilzeitbeschäftigter. Gestützt auf Daten des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) und des Forschungsdatenzentrums (FDZ) der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, untersucht Autor Hans-Dieter Gerner aktuelle arbeitszeitpolitische Schlüsselfragen, zu denen bisher nur sehr begrenzte empirische Befunde vorliegen: Welche Folgen haben verlängerte Wochenarbeitszeiten für die Beschäftigung? Wie wirken sich Arbeitszeitkonten auf die Effizienz, die Gewinnsituation und die Beschäftigungsentwicklung von Betrieben aus? Welche Auswirkungen hatte die Einführung eines gesetzlichen Teilzeitanspruchs im Jahre 2001 auf die Entwicklung der Teilzeitbeschäftigung?

"A fair assessment of the performance of the THA (Treuhandanstalt: privitization agency) does not only require knowledge of the number of privitizations and investment and employment commitments given by those acquiring former THA-establishments, but also information on viability and the economic development in this corporate sector. Using data from the IAB Establishment Panel 2000 to 2007, the developments in productivity of former THA establishments and others were investigated for the first time from 2002 onwards. While the results of the descriptive analyses show a higher level of production and a more favourable development of productivity for THA-establishments as of 2002, the results of the production frontier analyses were less clear. Technical efficiency in former THA-establishments is in principle only higher if (practically) time-constant variables such as affiliation to branch of industry, the existence of a works council, and the validity of branch and company wage agreements are not taken into account. The higher productivity of the former THA-establishments that has been identified is thus essentially a result of time-invariant factors. This also applies to a large extent – the period between 2004 and 2007 was an exception – when the observation period from 2000 to 2007 is divided into 5 time slices, each covering 4 observation years." (text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Whilst in applied empirical research, training in general human capital is mainly explained by structural characteristics of firms, this paper introduces business expectations as an additional explanatory factor. Business expectations are strictly time-variate and firm-specific and reflect both a firm's development in competitive markets and in the business cycle. We assume that a firm's business expectations strongly modify the cost-utility concept for firms' decisions as regards providing apprenticeship places. When controlling for firms' structural characteristics, static econometric models support our assumption that a change in business expectations leads to an asymmetric adjustment process of firms' qualitative decisions regarding apprenticeship training. Concerning the quantitative decision as to how many apprenticeship places a firm provides we found a significant but not asymmetric response to a change in business expectations. A dynamic approach confirms the results obtained in the static models of a symmetric quantitative adjustment process in a short-term perspective. In a longer perspective the dynamic model supports the assumption of an asymmetric quantitative adjustment process. Further on an application shows that an increasing uncertainty regarding business expectations tends to reduce the apprenticeship training at firm level.

We use a simple nonparametric regression approach to measure the relationship between employment growth, hirings and separations in a large panel of German establishments over the period 1993–2014. Although it is often claimed that firms in Europe have less flexibility in their ability to hire and fire, we find that the relationship between employment growth and worker flows in German establishments is very similar to the behaviour of U.S. establishments. The relationship is stable over time, even during the 2008–9 economic crisis and across different types of establishment. We verify our results with independent measures from administrative data. We suggest that this result is due to: the strong relationship between employment reductions and voluntary separations; the low level of 'churning'; and the heterogeneity of jobs within establishments.

Company-level pacts between the management and the works council are often preferred in comparison to agreements between employers' association and unions because the former negotiating partners are better informed about the economic situation of a company and have fewer goal conflicts than the latter. Moreover, these company-level pacts might reduce the 'hold-up' problems which arise once specialized investment is made. Therefore, this article investigates whether such agreements affect firm-level investment. Based on the IAB Establishment Panel Survey 2001–2010 the study indicates that the adoption of a company-level pact leads to a higher investment rate than in other firms driven by reinvestment. However, the Great Recession has damped this positive influence. From the econometric analysis the article does not detect any increase in investment during the negotiation phase. After the expiration of a company-level pact, lower reinvestment and a small increase in net investment take place. © 2013, © The Author(s) 2013.

In our paper, we analyze the impact of German employment protection legislation on the firms' employment adjustment patterns. We explore a reform of the Protection Against Dismissal Act (PADA) in 2004 that decreased the employment protection in small establishments and thus generated a quasi-experiment. Extending previous studies we distinguish between open-ended and fixed-term contracts, as the latter might be used to circumvent the PADA. Difference-in-differences estimations based on IAB Establishment Panel data show no overall effect of the reform on firms' employment adjustment patterns. However, the proportion of hirings based on fixed-term contracts decreases.

Company-level pacts between the management and the works council are often preferred in comparison to agreements between employers' association and unions because the former negotiating partners are better informed about the economic situation of a company and have fewer goal conflicts than the latter. Moreover, these company-level pacts might reduce the 'hold-up' problems which arise once specialized investment is made. Therefore, this article investigates whether such agreements affect firm-level investment. Based on the IAB Establishment Panel Survey 2001–2010 the study indicates that the adoption of a company-level pact leads to a higher investment rate than in other firms driven by reinvestment. However, the Great Recession has damped this positive influence. From the econometric analysis the article does not detect any increase in investment during the negotiation phase. After the expiration of a company-level pact, lower reinvestment and a small increase in net investment take place.

German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system. First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry-level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment-level, the works council is responsible for employer–employee negotiations. However, since the mid-1980s, an increasing number of areas of regulation have been transferred from the industry- to the establishment-level using so-called opening clauses. The analysis in this article relies on rich German establishment data and reveals new insights into the institutional machinery of wage bargaining. While the existence of such clauses is related to higher wages, their application results in wage cuts of roughly the same size. The results also suggest that works councils, on average, are able to prevent the negative wage effects of opening clauses.