Verbesserte Institutionen für den Arbeitsmarkt in der Wirtschaftskrise

Gartner, Hermann; Klinger, Sabine

doi:10.1007/s10273-010-1143-0

Cited by 28 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…The speed and depth of the reforms were quite remarkable when it is considered that the German welfare state had been typically depicted as the prime example of a "frozen welfare state", highly resistant to change (see, among others, Esping-Andersen 1990; Manow and Seils 2000;Kemmerling and Bruttel 2005;Konle-Seidl et al 2010). In summary, the actions taken during the reforms led to higher working incentives and better matching between labor demand and supply in the period before the Great Recession, and were therefore considered as one of the main reasons for the mild reaction (Gartner and Klinger 2010). The reforms also had the general goal of increasing the labor force participation of those with young families.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The German labor market after the Great Recession: successful reforms and future challenges

Caliendo

Hogenacker

2012

J Eur Labor Stud

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The reaction of the German labor market to the Great Recession 2008/09 was relatively mild -especially compared to other countries. The reason lies not only in the specific type of the recession -which was favorable for the German economy structure -but also in a series of labor market reforms initiated between 2002 and 2005 altering, inter alia, labor supply incentives. However, irrespective of the mild response to the Great Recession, there are a number of substantial future challenges the German labor market will soon have to face. Female labor supply still lies well below that of other countries and a massive demographic change over the next 50 years will have substantial effects on labor supply as well as the pension system. In addition, due to a skill-biased technological change over the next decades, firms will face problems of finding employees with adequate skills. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, we outline why the German labor market reacted in such a mild fashion, describe current economic trends of the labor market in light of general trends in the European Union, and reveal some of the main associated challenges. Thereafter, the paper analyzes recent reforms of the main institutional settings of the labor market which influence labor supply. Finally, based on the status quo of these institutional settings, the paper gives a brief overview of strategies to combat adequately the challenges in terms of labor supply and to ensure economic growth in the future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The German labor market after the Great Recession: successful reforms and future challenges

Caliendo

Hogenacker

2012

J Eur Labor Stud

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“…07 expansion and in its predecessor (Gartner and Klinger 2010), it is possible that increasing specialization of the workforce and slow labor force growth have made firms more reluctant to part with their skilled workers in recessions.…”

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confidence: 99%

What Explains the German Labor Market Miracle in the Great Recession?

Burda

Hunt

2011

103

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NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.© 2011 by Michael C. Burda and Jennifer Hunt. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. What Explains the German Labor Market Miracle in the Great ABSTRACTGermany experienced an even deeper fall in GDP in the Great Recession than the United States, with little employment loss. Employers' reticence to hire in the preceding expansion, associated in part with a lack of confidence it would last, contributed to an employment shortfall equivalent to 40 percent of the missing employment decline in the recession. Another 20 percent may be explained by wage moderation. A third important element was the widespread adoption of working time accounts, which permit employers to avoid overtime pay if hours per worker average to standard hours over a window of time. We find that this provided disincentives for employers to lay off workers in the downturn. Although the overall cuts in hours per worker were consistent with the severity of the Great Recession, reduction of working time account balances substituted for traditional government-sponsored short-time work. Considering the much greater decline in GDP in the Great Recession, however, the similarity of the declines in person-hours is a surprise.In this paper we investigate the reasons for this significant deviation from historical experience in the German labor market response to the 2008-09 recession. We highlight the fact that employment rose less than expected in the preceding expansion, given changes in GDP and labor costs, and that half of this shortfall can be explained using data on employers' business expectations. Employers lacked confidence that the boom would last, or were perhaps uncertain about how long it would last, and therefore they hired less than would have been predicted given contemporaneous conditions. Consequently, they were able to avoid costly layoffs when the recession arrived. Our survey of reporting by the Handelsblatt business newspaper confirms a general impression that firms downsized and restructured in the 2005-06 period, out of caution about the extent and persistence of the business upturn. The missing employment increase in the boom accounts for 41 percent of the missing employment decline in the recession, and 23 percent of that missing decline can be linked to pessimistic expectations in the expansion.If labor costs responded more flexibly than in the past to mitigate employment losses, this could also contribute to explaining the unusually mild labor market response to the recession.However, the fall in labor costs came too late to stem employment losses. Some previous analysts Although we cannot account for about 40 percent of the missing decline in employment, we believe that a per...

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“…• Matching efficiency has increased as is visible in the inward-movement of the Beveridge curve (Gartner and Klinger, 2010). This is mostly the result of the first three of the Hartz reforms, which, for example, allowed private firms to help in placing unemployed and mandated a reorganisation of the employment agency.…”

Section: Increased Work Incentives and Better Job Matchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historically, unit labour costs in Germany rose by 15% in the 1990s, 20% in the 80s and 69% in the 70s. The decline during the 2000s was linked to the labour market reforms as increased work incentives increasingly led the unemployed to accept lower-paid jobs (Gartner and Klinger, 2010). Similarly, trade unions lost bargaining power as trade union density (the share of trade union members in all employees) declined by over 6 percentage points between 1999 and 2008 and at 19% in 2008 stood 8 percentage points below the average OECD country.…”

Section: Wage Moderation In the Wake Of Labour Market Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%