Suchergebnisse

Using retrospective survey data that covers 1939, 1950, 1960, and 1971, I compare individual-level changes in employment industry and occupational status in Germany from the beginning of World War II to the post-war reconstruction era dubbed the Economic Miracle (Wirtschaftswunder). This comparison reveals that, with only a few exceptions, labor allocation developments remained relatively stable even in the face of huge political and macroeconomic change.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether labour mobility is likely to act as a sufficient adjustment mechanism in the face of asymmetric shocks in Euroland. To this end, we estimate the elasticity of migration with respect to changes in unemployment and income on the basis of regional panel data provided by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Regression results are provided for Western Germany, France, and Italy. It is shown that labour mobility is highest in Germany, followed by France, and Italy. However, even in Germany, the accommodation of a shock to unemployment by migration takes several years. We conclude that labour mobility is extremely unlikely to act as a sufficient adjustment mechanism to asymmetric shocks in Euroland.

We analyse Polish active labour market policy (ALMP) training programmes from a macroeconomic (regional) point of view. The effects of training programmes on the outflows from unemployment and the effects of all ALMP programmes on the outflows from employment (to identify displacement effects) are estimated. The variety of specifications presented is revealing. In contrast to other studies on Poland, we show that it can make a difference to the estimates whether current ALMP expenditure is excluded from the set of regressors to reduce the endogeneity problem, whether lagged dependent variables are included to take account of the dynamics, and whether fixed or random effects models are estimated. The empirical evidence gives some tentative support to the view that public training programmes can be used to reduce unemployment.