Thema Arbeit und Beschäftigung

Public Employment Agency Reform, Matching Efficiency, and German Unemployment

Our paper analyzes the role of public employment agencies in job matching, in particular the effects of the restructuring of the Federal Employment Agency in Germany (Hartz III labor market reform) for aggregate matching and unemployment. Based on two microeconomic datasets, we show that the market share of the Federal Employment Agency as job intermediary declined after the Hartz reforms. We propose ...

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Holding the Door Slightly Open: Germany’s Migrants’ Return Intentions and Realizations

Return migration intentions are complex and are not necessarily followed by future return migration. Our study compares successful return or repeated migration with self-declared return intentions. We take advantage of the latest German Socio-Economic Panel survey dropout studies and fieldwork to observe a wider return migration window than reported in the literature to answer the question of whether ...

Do Women Expect Wage Cuts for Part-Time Work?

I quantify the perceived changes in hourly wage rates associated with working different hours on the same job for a representative sample of female workers. While part-time working women expect significant hourly wage gains from switching to full-time work - 7% on average - full-time workers expect no effect on current wages when switching to part-time, on average. Perceived pecuniary losses from part-time ...

A Tale of Two Data Sets: Comparing German Administrative and Survey Data Using Wage Inequality as an Example

The IAB’s Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies (SIAB) and the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) are the two data sets most commonly used to analyze wage inequality in Germany. While the SIAB is based on administrative reports by employers to the social security system, the SOEP is a survey data set in which respondents self-report their wages. Both data sources have their specific advantages and ...

Midijob Reform: Increased Redistribution in Pension Insurance – Noticeable Costs, Relief Not Well Targeted

The German Federal Government has expanded subsidies for employees with low gross wages (midijob employees) as of January 1, 2023, and raised the upper earnings limit to 2,000 euros. As a result, around 6.2 million midijob employees will benefit from paying reduced social security contributions while still receiving their full pension entitlements, made possible by a redistribution within the social ...

Midijob-Reform: Mehr Umverteilung in der Rente – spürbare Kosten entlasten nicht zielgenau

Die Bundesregierung hat die Förderung von Beschäftigung mit niedrigen Bruttoarbeitsentgelten (Midijobs) zum 1. Januar 2023 ausgeweitet und die Verdienstobergrenze auf 2 000 Euro brutto monatlich angehoben. Rund 6,2 Millionen Menschen mit einem Midijob profitieren von reduzierten Sozialbeiträgen. Zudem erhalten sie die vollen Rentenansprüche, obwohl sie verminderte Rentenbeiträge zahlen. Möglich wird ...

Die Gewährung voller Rentenansprüche bei Midijobs ist wenig zielgenau: Interview

Is There a Union Wage Premium in Germany and Which Workers Benefit Most?

Using representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper finds a statistically significant union wage premium in Germany of almost three percent which is not simply a collective bargaining premium. Given that the union membership fee is typically about one percent of workers’ gross wages, this finding suggests that it pays off to be a union member. Our results show that the ...

The Impact of Migration on Wages in Costa Rica

In recent years, Costa Rica has experienced greater international migration from neighboring countries due to political, economic, and social reasons, raising discussions on the impact of migration on wages of native Costa Rican workers. This article is the first that disentangles the impact of migration on wages for native Costa Ricans from the impact for settled immigrants by analyzing the effect ...