Documents Wälde, Klaus 9 results

"By how much does an increase in operating effectiveness of a public employment agency (PEA) and a reduction of unemployment benefits reduce unemployment? Using a recent labour market reform in Germany as background, we find that an enhanced effectiveness of the PEA explains about 20% of the observed post-reform unemployment decline. The role of unemployment benefit reduction explains just about 5% of the observed decline. Due to disincentive effects resulting from the reform, the reform of the PEA could have had an even higher impact on unemployment reduction if there had been less focus on long-term unemployed workers."

"Trade unions have always played an important role in the determination of labour standards. This activity can be argued to increase output and welfare of a country. This paper presents a theoretical framework representing a world consisting of the North and the South where labour standards in the North are set by trade unions. There are no unions in the South implying suboptimal work standards. Global integration of these countries can imply a reduction in work standards in the North. Moreover, when trade unions are established in the South, the North, including northern unions, tends to lose out. Quantitatively, these effects are small and overcompensated for by gains in the South. The existing empirical literature tends to support our findings."

"Worker movements played a crucial role in making workplaces safer. Workplace safety is costly for firms but increases labour supply. A laissez-faire approach leaving safety of workplaces unknown is suboptimal. Safety standards set by better-informed trade unions are output and welfare increasing. Trade between a country with trade unions (the North) and a union-free country (the South) can imply a reduction in work standards in the North. When trade unions are established in the South, the North, including northern unions, tend to lose. Quantitatively, these effects are small and overcompensated by gains in the South. "

"The number of unemployed workers in Germany decreased dramatically from its peak in February 2005 at over 5.2 million to 3.6 million by 2008. At the same time, employment increased by 1.2 million. Most theoretical and empirical analyses of this episode assume that a worker leaving unemployment moves into full employment. We ask where the unemployed actually went. Using and merging two large micro data sets, we account for the decrease of unemployment by computing inflows and outflows between unemployment and 16 other labour market states. Direct flows between unemployment and full employment contributed for only less than 9 percent to the decline in unemployment. By contrast, more than 37 percent of the unemployed workers ended up in non-standard work. About 13 percent participated in labour market policy programmes and 28 percent retired. Following the unemployment cohort of February 2005 over time confirms the order of magnitude of our findings."

"This paper studies the labor market effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. We focus on the Nordic countries which showed one of the highest variations in NPIs despite having similar community spread of Covid-19 at the onset of the pandemic: While Denmark, Finland and Norway imposed strict measures (‘lockdowns'), Sweden decided for much lighter restrictions. Empirically, we use novel administrative data on weekly new unemployment and furlough spells from all 56 regions of the Nordic countries to compare the labor market outcomes of Sweden with the ones of its neighbors. Our evidence suggests that the labor markets of all countries were severely hit by the pandemic, although Sweden performed slightly better than its neighbors. Specifically, we find the worsening of the Swedish labor market to occur around 2 to 3 weeks later than in the other Nordic countries, and that its cumulative sum of new unemployment and furlough spells remained significantly lower during the time period of our study (up to week 21 of 2020)."