"The paper analyses movements in the unemployment rate of West German districts in the period 1992-2004 by the chain reaction theory of unemployment (CRT). The estimations show that unemployment movements are generated together by lagged adjustment processes and by exogenous shocks. We find that...

"Differences in regional labour market conditions are still pronounced in Germany, especially between the Eastern and the Western part. Traditional neoclassical models imply that labour mobility should reduce disparities. In contrast, models that include externalities or selective migration...

"Almost twenty years after German reunification there are still huge income disparities between western and eastern regions in Germany. The main purpose of the paper is to show how social transfer payments reduce these inter-regional disparities. In a first step we examine inequalities in the...

"In this paper we show that firm characteristics have an influence on the success of employment subsidies e.g. wage subsidies and in-work benefits, as they can strengthen positive effects or mitigate negative effects. We consider firm characteristics as post treatment variables, which are...

"Using large data sets from the German employment and unemployment register 1985-2004, we investigate aggregate wage cyclicality and the wage curve for establishment stayers and movers. We find that movers' wage responses to aggregate unemployment rate changes exceed these of stayers by about...

"Sprachkenntnisse in Deutsch und berufliche Abschlüsse sind wichtige Voraussetzungen für die wirtschaftliche und soziale Teilhabe von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund in Deutschland. Seit längerer Zeit gibt es daher spezifische Sprachförderangebote für unterschiedliche Zielgruppen. Mit...

"This paper focuses on the question of whether improving the competence of new business founders by means of coaching and training programs enhances the duration of self-employment. In our analysis we focus on support activities that are provided in addition to a financial subsidy and which...

"In this paper we study the effect of small labor market entry cohorts on (un)employment in Western Germany. From a theoretical point of view, decreasing cohort sizes may on the one hand reduce unemployment due to 'inverse cohort crowding' or on the other hand increase unemployment if companies...

"Using administrative linked employer-employee data from Germany, this paper analyses the real wage growth and career patterns of full-time employed low-wage workers between 2001 and 2006. Multivariate models accounting for sample selection demonstrate the relevance of individual characteristics...

"This article examines if occupations contribute to social closure by their structural characteristics. For this purpose the four structural indicators occupational specificity, standardization by training regulation, voluntary certification by private educ-tional providers and representation by...