The labor market in Germany is more sclerotic and volatile than in the US. We show theoretically that sclerosis and large volatilities are two sides of the same coin. Both may be driven by large hiring costs and low quit rates.

This paper shows that the German labor market is more volatile than the US labor market. Specifically, the volatility of the cyclical component of several labor market variables (e.g., the job-finding rate, labor market tightness, and job vacancies) divided by the volatility of labor...

Wir zeigen empirisch, dass die konjunkturellen Schwankungen am Arbeitsmarkt in Deutschland höher sind als in den USA. Insbesondere ist die Volatilität von Arbeitsmarktvariablen (etwa der Vakanzen, der Arbeitsmarktanspannung oder der Wahrscheinlichkeit Arbeit zu finden) im Verhältnis zur...