The new German federal government wants to replace the unemployment benefit II (Arbeitslosengeld II) with a so-called citizen’s income ("Bürgergeld"). In doing so, it needs to make major changes. Measures outlined in the coalition agreement indicate that the existing imbalance in the so...

The German minimum wage was introduced in January 2015. This paper investigates the short-term macroeconomic impacts of its introduction. Therefore, an estimated VAR/VECM is used to perform forecasts that are interpreted as counterfactual to the introduction of the minimum wage and compared to...

This paper investigates the reasons for the exceptionally robust performance of the German labour market during the Great Recession. While GDP dropped by more than five per cent in 2009, employment remained constant and started to increase soon after. We compare this recession to other major...

This article analyses the relevance of the extensive and the intensive margin of labour adjustment over the business cycle in Germany and in the United States. Previous research has found that, firstly, the extensive margin dominates and that, secondly, the relative relevance of the two margins...

Die Weltwirtschaftskrise trifft den Kern des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser globalen Krise analysiert das Diskussionspapier zunächst die Situation am deutschen Arbeitsmarkt. Auf der Grundlage dieser Analyse werden dann einige zentrale Maßnahmen beschrieben, die geeignet...