Die Förderung der Zuwanderung qualifizierter Arbeitskräfte aus dem Ausland gehört zu den Maßnahmen der westlichen Industrienationen zur Sicherung des Fachkräftebestandes. Bisher zeigt sich jedoch, dass sowohl Deutschland als auch die EU im Vergleich zu anderen Industrienationen insgesamt nicht sehr erfolgreich bei der Anwerbung von (hoch-)qualifizierten Migranten sind.
Im Rahmen einer Sonderfrage im Ifo World Economic Survey vom April 2016 wurden die Umfrageteilnehmer gefragt, inwiefern sich in ihrem Land nach ihrer Einschätzung die Einwanderungspolitik bezüglich hoch- und geringqualifizierten Arbeitsmigranten sowie Flüchtlingen in den nächsten fünf Jahren verändern wird. Der Großteil der befragten WES-Wirtschaftsexperten erwarten eine restriktivere Einwanderungspolitik sowohl gegenüber geringqualifizierten Einwanderern als auch gegenüber Flüchtlingen.
The first part of the study compares the institutional settings of employee representation and collective bargaining in France and Germany. One important difference is that in France, many aspects of collective agreements are defined by labour law, whereas in Germany, collective bargaining partners are given far greater scope for negotiation. The second part of the study analyses the economic effects of different institutional settings. Greater wage flexibility has positive effects on competitiveness and employment. In the last part of the study, reform proposals made by Jean-Denis Combrexelle, President of the Department of Social Affairs of the government council, are evaluated. His proposals to enlarge the scope of collective bargaining and also allow firm-level bargaining are judged positively. Moving from the indeterminate duration of firm agreements to well-defined contract periods would reduce uncertainty for both firms and workers. The implementation of these reform proposals would be most effective if they were combined with a peace obligation, meaning that no strikes would be allowed for an agreed period of time. The proposal to maintain extensions of industrial agreements by the Labour Minister is counterproductive and would partly eliminate gains from other proposals.
This study presents a comparative analysis of regulatory thresholds applicable to firms in France and in Germany. A central question tackled by the report is whether regulations related to limits on firms' employment appear to prevent French firms from growing above these thresholds. The first part of the report specifies how the obligations of the firms depend on the number of employees. Several thresholds apply to firms in both countries. In France, the main regulations become effective when a firm hires the fiftieth employee. In the empirical analysis on small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in the second part of the report, evidence is found for distorting effects on the firm size distribution only in France. French firms are increasingly concentrated below the regulatory thresholds of 10, 20, and 50 employees. The effects of the 50-employee-threshold on employment growth at the firm level are evaluated in particular. Firms are less likely to hire new workers if the 50-employee-threshold is exceeded. When it comes to different reform proposals in the third part of the report, increasing the thresholds permanently would encourage firm growth in the range between the current and the new threshold. In the longer term, a new distortion would be established at the new threshold. The most efficient way to reduce other distortions at the threshold would be to estimate the costs that such regulations impose on firms, and then offer firms that exceed that threshold a reduction in payroll tax when the threshold is crossed.
