To which extent does an increase in operating effectiveness of public employment agencies on the one hand and a reduction of unemployment benefits on the other reduce unemployment? Using the recent labour market reform in Germany as background we find that the role of unemployment benefit...

Die Hartz IV Reform des Arbeitsmarktes ist eine der politisch umstrittensten Reformen, die seit der Wiedervereinigung in der Bundesrepublik durchgeführt wurden. Mit ihr werden Gefährdungen des Lebensstandards bis hin zu Armut verbunden. Gleichzeitig konnte die Bundesrepublik ihre...

Historically, worker movements have played a crucial role in making workplaces safer. Firms traditionally oppose better health standards. According to our in- terpretation, workplace safety is costly for firms but increases average health of workers and thereby aggregate labour supply. A...

We analyse a world consisting of 'the North'and 'the South' where labour stan- dards in the North are set by trade unions. Standards set by unions tend to increase output and welfare. There are no unions in the South and work stan- dards are suboptimal. Trade between these two countries can...

The distribution of unemployment duration in our equilibrium matching model with spell-dependent unemployment bene?ts displays a time-varying exit rate. Building on Semi-Markov processes, we translate these exit rates into an expres- sion for the aggregate unemployment rate. Structural...

This paper provides the proofs to the analysis of a continuous time match- ing model with saving in Bayer and Wälde (2010a). The paper proves the results on consumption growth, provides an existence proof for optimal consumption and a detailed derivation of the Fokker-Planck equations.

We analyse optimal saving of risk-averse households when labour income stochastically jumps between two states. The generalized Keynes-Ramsey rule includes a precautionary savings term. A phase diagram analysis il- lustrates consumption and wealth dynamics within and between states. There is an...

A model highlighting the endogeneity of both volatility and growth is presented. Volatility and growth are therefore correlated but there is no causal link from volatility to growth. This joint endogeneity is illustrated by working out the eects through which economies with dierent tax levels...