The strong and sustained labour market upswing in Germany is widely recognized. In a developing literature, various relevant studies highlight different specific reasons. The underlying study, instead, simultaneously considers a broad set of factors in a unified methodological framework and...

The number of unemployed workers in Germany decreased dramatically from its peak in February 2005 at over 5.2 million to 3.6 million by 2008. At the same time, employment increased by 1.2 million. Most theoretical and empirical analyses of this episode assume that a worker leaving unemployment...

I study the recruiting behaviour of German establishments with regard to the use of foreign labour markets. Applying instrumental variable strategies, I find foreign affinity and labour market scarcity to stimulate the use of foreign markets. Regional labour market scarcity is particularly...

Does interacting product and labor market regulation alter the impact of immigration on wages of competing native workers? Focusing on the large, sudden and unanticipated wave of migration from East to West Germany after German reunification and allowing for endogenous immigration, we compare...

There is an ongoing discussion that centres on the German labour market reforms (2003- 2005) and the role of these reforms in boosting the German economy. Considering that one of the main objectives of the reforms was to improve the matching process on the labour market, I use rich,...

Although the labour market situation of older workers has significantly improved over time, opportunities to work at older age still vary considerably across EU countries. To trace diverging developments and to assess what works best in retaining employment and bringing older unemployed back to...