Using a retrospective monthly calendarium of individuals? major economic activities, this paper characterizes the monthly employment and unemployment rates and the monthly transition intensities between the states of employment, unemployment, and out-of-thelabor- force for the German labor...

It is often argued that the labor market outcomes of several ?problem groups? of German workers suffer disproportionately in an economic downturn. These groups are women, the unskilled, and young and old workers, respectively. Using monthly individual-level data for West Germany for the period...

Germany is the laggard of Europe, yet the country is world champion in merchandise exports. The paper tries to solve this theoretical and empirical puzzle by diagnosing a "pathological export boom" and a "bazaar effect". Excessively high wages defended by unions and the welfare state against the...

The aggregate average unemployment rate in a given country is essentially the result of individual workers' transitions between the three core labor force states, employment, unemployment, and inactivity. The dynamics of these transitions depend both, on individual duration in a particular state...

Using data from the German SOEP, this paper analyses whether there have been (a) any significant changes in poverty rates and poverty intensities before and after the Hartz IV reforms and (b) whether there have been observable changes in the effect of employment in reducing the threat or...

Ergänzend zu den Beiträgen im Schnelldienst Nr. 15/2002 nimmt Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Sinn, ifo Institut und Universität München, kritisch zu den Vorschlägen der Hartz-Kommission Stellung. Seiner Ansicht nach „sind die Vorschläge der Hartz-Kommission im Grundsatz zu begrüßen, weil sie...

Am 26. Januar 2006 stellte das ifo Institut im Rahmen einer Bundespressekonferenz die aktualisierte Version des ifo Kombilohn-Modells "Aktivierende Sozialhilfe" vor, das eine Alternative zum heutigen Lohnersatzmodell bietet. Das ifo-Modell eröffnet bei verringerten fiskalischen Kosten...