Viel wird über die "Hartz-Reformen" und ihre Effekte spekuliert, aber es gibt bislang so gut wie keine aussagekräftigen Belege, auf die sich derartige Schlussfolgerungen stützen können. Auch wenn sich viele Wirkungen erst im Zeitablauf richtig entfalten werden, besteht doch die Möglichkeit...

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

Seit langem werden Reformen des Ehegattensplittings bei der Einkommensteuerdiskutiert, zuletzt während der Koalitionsverhandlungen im Oktober 2002. Das DIW Berlin hat die Aufkommens- und Belastungswirkungen des gegenwärtigen Splittingverfahrens und von alternativen Formen der...

This paper explores the role that the imperfect knowledge of the structure of the economy plays in the uncertainty surrounding the effects of rule-based monetary policy on unemployment dynamics in the euro area and the US. We employ a Bayesian model averaging procedure on a wide range of models...

Based on unique administrative data, which has only recently become available, this paper estimates the employment effects of the most important type of public sector sponsored training in Germany, namely the provision of specific professional skills and techniques (SPST). Using the inflows into...

Job placement vouchers can be regarded as a tool to spur competition between public and private job placement activities. The German government launched this instrument in order to end the public placement monopoly and to subsidize its private competitors. We exploit very rich administrative...

Long-term public sector sponsored training programs often show little or negative short-run employment effects and often it is not possible to assess whether positive long-run effects exist. Based on unique administrative data, this paper estimates the long-run differential employment effects of...