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Escaping the Unemployment Trap — The Case of East Germany

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Author Info
Christian Merkl
Dennis J. Snower

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Abstract

This paper addresses the question of why prolonged regional unemployment differentials tend to persist even after their proximate causes have been reversed (e.g., after wages in the high-unemployment regions have fallen relative to those in the low-unemployment regions). We suggest that the longer people are unemployed, the greater is the likelihood of falling into a low-productivity "trap," through the attrition of skills and work habits. We develop and calibrate a model along these lines for East Germany and examine the effectiveness of three employment policies in this context: (i) a weakening of workers’ position in wage negotiations due to a drop in the replacement rate or firing costs, leading to a fall in wages, (ii) hiring subsidies, and (iii) training subsidies. We show that the employment effects of these policies depend crucially on whether low-productivity traps are present.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Kiel Institute for the World Economy in its series Kiel Working Papers with number 1309.

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Length: 27 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2007
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Handle: RePEc:kie:kieliw:1309

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Related research
Keywords: labor markets; labor market traps; calibration; East Germany;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
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  24. Michael C. Burda, 2006. "Factor Reallocation in Eastern Germany after Reunification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 368-374, May. [Downloadable!]
  25. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Rima Izem, 2007. "Explaining the Low Labor Productivity in East Germany. A Spatial Analysis," Kiel Working Papers 1307, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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  27. Christian Grund, 2006. "Severance payments for dismissed employees in Germany," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 49-71, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  28. Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2007. "Active Labour Market Policy in East Germany: Waiting for the Economy to take off," Kiel Working Papers 1308, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christian Merkl & Dennis Snower, 2008. "East German Unemployment: The Myth of the Irrelevant Labor Market," Kiel Working Papers 1435, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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