IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iab/iabdpa/200925.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fixing the leak: Unemployment incidence before and after the 2006 reform of unemployment benefits in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Dlugosz, Stephan

    (ZEW)

  • Stephan, Gesine

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany)

  • Wilke, Ralf A.

    (PSI Policy Studies Institute London ; School of Economics at the University of Nottingham ; ZEW)

Abstract

"From 2002 - 2004, the German government passed several laws that curtailed the generosity of the unemployment compensation system. One of the most ambitious changes was a considerable reduction in unemployment benefit entitlement lengths for older unemployed, which was effective during 2006 and 2007. We apply a difference-in-differences approach to show that the highly disputed reform induced a considerable decline in unemployment incidence among older workers. It thus sealed an important leak in the unemployment insurance system. Furthermore, we find a strong anticipation effect; unemployment entries of elderly workers peaked during the months preceding the reform." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Suggested Citation

  • Dlugosz, Stephan & Stephan, Gesine & Wilke, Ralf A., 2009. "Fixing the leak: Unemployment incidence before and after the 2006 reform of unemployment benefits in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 200925, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    • Handle: RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doku.iab.de/discussionpapers/2009/dp2509.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heinemann Friedrich & Bischoff Ivo & Hennighausen Tanja, 2009. "Choosing from the Reform Menu Card – Individual Determinants of Labour Market Policy Preferences," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(2-3), pages 180-197, April.
    2. Rafael Lalive, 2007. "Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Duration, and Post-Unemployment Jobs: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 108-112, May.
    3. Samuel Bentolila & Giuseppe Bertola, 1990. "Firing Costs and Labour Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(3), pages 381-402.
    4. Lee, Sokbae & Wilke, Ralf A., 2009. "Reform of Unemployment Compensation in Germany: A Nonparametric Bounds Analysis Using Register Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 27(2), pages 193-205.
    5. Addison, John T. & Portugal, Pedro, 2008. "How do different entitlements to unemployment benefits affect the transitions from unemployment into employment?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 206-209, December.
    6. Rafael Lalive & Jan Van Ours & Josef Zweimuller, 2006. "How Changes in Financial Incentives Affect the Duration of Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(4), pages 1009-1038.
    7. Arnds, Pascal & Bonin, Holger, 2002. "Frühverrentung in Deutschland: Ökonomische Anreize und institutionelle Strukturen," IZA Discussion Papers 666, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Puhani, Patrick A., 2012. "The treatment effect, the cross difference, and the interaction term in nonlinear “difference-in-differences” models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 85-87.
    9. Oberschachtsiek, Dirk & Scioch, Patrycja & Seysen, Christian & Heining, Jörg, 2009. "Stichprobe der Integrierten Erwerbsbiografien IEBS : Handbuch für die IEBS in der Fassung 2008," FDZ Datenreport. Documentation on Labour Market Data 200903_de, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    11. Moffitt, Robert & Nicholson, Walter, 1982. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Unemployment: The Case of Federal Supplemental Benefits," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(1), pages 1-11, February.
    12. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    13. Lalive, Rafael, 2008. "How do extended benefits affect unemployment duration A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 785-806, February.
    14. Bernd Fitzenberger & Ralf A. Wilke, 2010. "Unemployment Durations in West Germany Before and After the Reform of the Unemployment Compensation System during the 1980s," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(3), pages 336-366, August.
    15. Tomi Kyyrä & Ralf A. Wilke, 2007. "Reduction in the Long-Term Unemployment of the Elderly: A Success Story from Finland," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(1), pages 154-182, March.
    16. repec:iab:iabfda:200903(de is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Pierre Cahuc & André Zylberberg, 2004. "Labor Economics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026203316x, December.
    18. Melanie Arntz & Ralf Wilke, 2009. "Unemployment Duration in Germany: Individual and Regional Determinants of Local Job Finding, Migration and Subsidized Employment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 43-61.
    19. Bernd Fitzenberger & Ralf A. Wilke, 2010. "Unemployment Durations in West Germany Before and After the Reform of the Unemployment Compensation System during the 1980s," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(3), pages 336-366, August.
    20. Anders Karlstrom & Marten Palme & Ingemar Svensson, 2004. "A dynamic programming approach to model the retirement behaviour of blue-collar workers in Sweden," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 795-807.
    21. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2003. "Benefit duration and unemployment entry: A quasi-experiment in Austria," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 259-273, April.
    22. Stock, James H & Wise, David A, 1990. "Pensions, the Option Value of Work, and Retirement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(5), pages 1151-1180, September.
    23. Elke J. Jahn, 2009. "Do firms obey the law when they fire workers? Social criteria and severance payments in Germany," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(7), pages 672-691, November.
    24. Knut Gerlach & David Levine & Gesine Stephan & Olaf Struck, 2008. "Fairness and the employment contract: North American regions versus Germany," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(3), pages 421-439, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barbara Hanel, 2010. "Disability Pensions and Labor Supply," Working Papers 086, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    2. Dietz, Martin & Walwei, Ulrich, 2011. "Germany - no country for old workers?," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 44(4), pages 363-376.
    3. Bruno Amable & Baptiste Françon, 2014. "The Effect of the Hartz Reform on Unemployment Duration and Post-Unemployment Outcomes. A Difference-in-Differences Approach," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14020, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    4. Boockmann, Bernhard & Fries, Jan & Göbel, Christian, 2018. "Specific measures for older employees and late career employment," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 159-174.
    5. Felix Hüfner & Caroline Klein, 2012. "The German Labour Market: Preparing for the Future," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 983, OECD Publishing.
    6. Wolfgang Nagl & Michael Weber, 2014. "Unemployment compensation and unemployment duration before and after the German Hartz IV reform," ifo Working Paper Series 186, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    7. Christl, Michael & Kucsera, Dénes & Lorenz, Hanno, 2015. "Jung, älter, arbeitslos? Wie Ältere länger in Beschäftigung gehalten werden können, ohne die Jungen in die Arbeitslosigkeit zu treiben," EconStor Research Reports 119605, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    8. Dlugosz, Stephan & Stephan, Gesine & Wilke, Ralf A., 2009. "Verkürzte Bezugsdauern für Arbeitslosengeld: Deutliche Effekte auf die Eintritte in Arbeitslosigkeit (The 2006 reform of unemployment benefit entitlement lengths in Germany: considerable effects on en," IAB-Kurzbericht 200930, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    9. Stephan, Gesine & van den Berg, Gerard & Homrighausen, Pia, 2016. "Randomizing information on a targeted wage support program for older workers: A field experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145487, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Emma Tominey, 2013. "Maternity Leave and the Responsiveness of Female Labor Supply to a Household Shock," Working Papers 2013-016, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    11. Lo, Simon M.S. & Stephan, Gesine & Wilke, Ralf, 2012. "Estimating the Latent Effect of Unemployment Benefits on Unemployment Duration," IZA Discussion Papers 6650, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Kloß, Michael & Nagl, Wolfgang, 2013. "Unemployment compensation and unemployment duration - Evidence from the German Hartz IV reform," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79711, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Dlugosz, Stephan & Stephan, Gesine & Wilke, Ralf A., 2011. "Kürzere Bezugshöchstdauern von ALG und Effekte auf die Eintritte in Arbeitslosigkeit," ZEW Wachstums- und Konjunkturanalysen, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, vol. 14(2), pages 8-9.
    14. Goerke Laszlo & Pannenberg Markus, 2011. "'Take It or Go to Court': The Impact of Sec. 1a of the German Protection Against Dismissal Act on Severance Payments," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 377-404, December.
    15. Hanel, Barbara, 2012. "The effect of disability pension incentives on early retirement decisions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 595-607.
    16. Viktor Steiner, 2017. "The labor market for older workers in Germany [Der Arbeitsmarkt für ältere Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 50(1), pages 1-14, August.
    17. Dietz, Martin & Walwei, Ulrich, 2011. "Germany - no country for old workers?," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 44(4), pages 363-376.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Le Barbanchon, Thomas, 2016. "The effect of the potential duration of unemployment benefits on unemployment exits to work and match quality in France," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 16-29.
    2. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    3. Melanie Arntz & Simon Lo & Ralf Wilke, 2014. "Bounds analysis of competing risks: a non-parametric evaluation of the effect of unemployment benefits on migration," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 199-228, February.
    4. Albanese, Andrea & Picchio, Matteo & Ghirelli, Corinna, 2020. "Timed to Say Goodbye: Does Unemployment Benefit Eligibility Affect Worker Layoffs?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Melanie Arntz & Ralf Wilke, 2009. "Unemployment Duration in Germany: Individual and Regional Determinants of Local Job Finding, Migration and Subsidized Employment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 43-61.
    6. Inna Petrunyk & Christian Pfeifer, 2018. "Shortening the potential duration of unemployment benefits and labor market outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment in Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 377, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    7. Konstantinos Tatsiramos & Jan C. Ours, 2014. "Labor Market Effects Of Unemployment Insurance Design," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 284-311, April.
    8. Jessen, Jonas & Jessen, Robin & Galecka-Burdziak, Ewa & Góra, Marek & Kluve, Jochen, 2023. "The Micro and Macro Effects of Changes in the Potential Benefit Duration," IZA Discussion Papers 15978, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Martín-Román, Ángel L., 2022. "Beyond the added-worker and the discouraged-worker effects: the entitled-worker effect," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    10. Kyyrä, Tomi & Pesola, Hanna, 2017. "Estimating the effects of potential benefit duration without variation in the maximum duration of unemployment benefits," Working Papers 87, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Arntz, Melanie & Lo, Simon M. S. & Wilke, Ralf A., 2008. "Bounds analysis of competing risks : a nonparametric evaluation of the effect of unemployment benefits on migration in Germany (Revised version of the FDZ Methodenbericht No. 04/2007)," FDZ Methodenreport 200806_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Kyyrä, Tomi & Pesola, Hanna & Rissanen, Aarne, 2017. "Unemployment Insurance in Finland: A Review of Recent Changes and Empirical Evidence on Behavioral Responses," Research Reports 184, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Kyyrä, Tomi & Pesola, Hanna, 2020. "The effects of unemployment benefit duration: Evidence from residual benefit duration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. Luis Eduardo Arango & Ana María Ríos, 2015. "Duración del desempleo en Colombia: género, intensidad de búsqueda y anuncios de vacantes," BORRADORES DE ECONOMIA 012528, BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA.
    15. Frölich, Markus, 2007. "Regression Discontinuity Design with Covariates," IZA Discussion Papers 3024, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Lalive, Rafael, 2008. "How do extended benefits affect unemployment duration A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 785-806, February.
    17. Kyyrä, Tomi & Pesola, Hanna, 2020. "Long-term effects of extended unemployment benefits for older workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Raj Chetty & Amy Finkelstein, 2012. "Social Insurance: Connecting Theory to Data," NBER Working Papers 18433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ralf Wilke, 2009. "Unemployment Duration in the United Kingdom: An Incomplete Data Approach," Discussion Papers 09/02, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    20. S. Nuray Akin & Brennan Platt, 2012. "Running Out of Time: Limited Unemployment Benefits and Reservation Wages," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(2), pages 149-170, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bundesrepublik Deutschland ; Dauer ; Leistungsbezug ; ältere Arbeitnehmer ; Arbeitslosengeld ; arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme ; Wirkungsforschung ; 2006-2008;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200925. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: IAB, Geschäftsbereich Wissenschaftliche Fachinformation und Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iabbbde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.