Previous literature has identified considerable non-pecuniary costs to macroeconomic fluctuation and uncertainty. The present paper investigates whether and to what extent labor market institutions can mitigate those costs. We study how life satisfaction of European citizens is affected by...

Introduction -- Background for the Empirical Analyses: Institutional Details and Data -- Centralized versus Decentralized Welfare Administration -- The Employment Effects of an Intensified Use of Benefit Sanctions -- The Effectiveness of Temporary Extra Jobs and Short-Term Training Programs --...

In January 2005, the German government enacted a substantial reform of the welfare system, the so-called Hartz IV reform. This book evaluates key characteristics of the reform from a microeconometric perspective. It investigates whether a centralized or decentralized organization of welfare...