IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/5388.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The use of flexible working contracts in West Germany: evidence from an establishment panel

Author

Listed:
  • Boockmann, Bernhard
  • Hagen, Tobias

Abstract

This paper investigates under which conditions firms use fixed-term contracts, subcontracted and freelance work. Using a probit model which accounts for unobserved heterogeneity, we find that positive changes in expected or actual turnover are associated with a higher probability of employing atypical work, which suggests that these forms of employment are used as means of adjustment. Other important factors are employees? skill levels, investment in information technology, and the existence of collective wage agreements and works councils. Furthermore, a natural experiment is used to evaluate the impact of dismissal protection for permanent workers on the use of flexible working contracts. There is clear evidence that reducing dismissal protection decreases the demand for fixed-term employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Boockmann, Bernhard & Hagen, Tobias, 2001. "The use of flexible working contracts in West Germany: evidence from an establishment panel," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-33, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5388
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/24454/1/dp0133.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katharine G. Abraham, 1988. "Flexible Staffing Arrangements and Employers' Short-Term Adjustment Strategies," NBER Working Papers 2617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Nadiri, M Ishaq & Rosen, Sherwin, 1969. "Interrelated Factor Demand Functions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 457-471, Part I Se.
    3. Nickell, S.J., 1987. "Dynamic models of labour demand," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 473-522, Elsevier.
    4. William T. Dickens & Kevin Lang, 1992. "Labor Market Segmentation Theory: Reconsidering the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 4087, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Butler, J S & Moffitt, Robert, 1982. "A Computationally Efficient Quadrature Procedure for the One-Factor Multinomial Probit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 761-764, May.
    6. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    7. David H. Autor, 2000. "Outsourcing at Will: Unjust Dismissal Doctrine and the Growth of Temporary Help Employment," NBER Working Papers 7557, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jennifer Hunt, 2000. "Firing Costs, Employment Fluctuations and Average Employment: An Examination of Germany," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 67(266), pages 177-202, May.
    9. Stephen W. Salant, 1977. "Search Theory and Duration Data: A Theory of Sorts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(1), pages 39-57.
    10. Franz, Wolfgang & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2001. "Tarifbindung und die ökonomische Rationalität von Lohnrigiditäten," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-01, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1997. "The Growth of Temporary Services Work," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 117-136, Spring.
    12. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    13. Abraham, Katharine G & Taylor, Susan K, 1996. "Firms' Use of Outside Contractors: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(3), pages 394-424, July.
    14. Eric Maurin, 2000. "The European Paradox : Do Flexible Contracts Create Rigid Labor Markets ?," Working Papers 2000-07, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    15. Bentolila, Samuel & Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1992. "The macroeconomic impact of flexible labor contracts, with an application to Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1013-1047, June.
    16. Kaiser, Ulrich & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2000. "Collective wage agreements and the adjustment of workers and hours in German service firms," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-33, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1991. "Dynamic labor demand with dual labor markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 219-222, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Susan N. Houseman, 2001. "Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(1), pages 149-170, October.
    2. Christian Pfeifer, 2005. "Flexibility, Dual Labour Markets, and Temporary Employment. Empirical Evidence from German Establishment Data," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 16(3), pages 404-422.
    3. Marloes de Graaf-Zijl & Gerard van den Berg & Arjan Heyma, 2011. "Stepping stones for the unemployed: the effect of temporary jobs on the duration until (regular) work," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(1), pages 107-139, January.
    4. Hagen, Tobias, 2001. "Does fixed-term contract employment raise firms' adjustment-speed? Evidence from an establishment panel for West-Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-57, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Matthew Dey & Susan Houseman & Anne Polivka, 2010. "What Do We Know About Contracting Out in the United States? Evidence from Household and Establishment Surveys," NBER Chapters, in: Labor in the New Economy, pages 267-304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Elisabetta Magnani, 2006. "Technological diffusion, the diffusion of skill and the growth of outsourcing in US manufacturing," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(7), pages 617-647.
    7. David H. Autor, 2001. "Why Do Temporary Help Firms Provide Free General Skills Training?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1409-1448.
    8. Garen, John, 2006. "Use of employees and alternative work arrangements in the United States: a law, economics, and organizations perspective," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 107-141, February.
    9. Hagen Tobias, 2003. "Does Fixed-term Contract Employment Raise Firms’ Adjustment Speed?. Evidence from an Establishment Panel for West Germany / Erhöhen befristete Verträge die Anpassungsgeschwindigkeit von Unternehmen?. ," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 223(4), pages 403-421, August.
    10. Heywood, John S. & Siebert, W. Stanley & Wei, Xiangdong, 2006. "Examining the Determinants of Agency Work: Do Family Friendly Practices Play a Role?," IZA Discussion Papers 2413, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Patrick Francois & Joanne Roberts, 2003. "Contracting Productivity Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(1), pages 59-85.
    12. Mohl, Philipp & Hagen, Tobias, 2011. "Do EU structural funds promote regional employment? Evidence from dynamic panel data models," Working Paper Series 1403, European Central Bank.
    13. Adriana Kugler & Juan F. Jimeno & Virginia Hernanz, "undated". "Employment Consequences of Restrictive Permanent Contracts: Evidence from Spanish Labor Market Reforms," Working Papers 2003-14, FEDEA.
    14. Mustra Vinko & Malesevic Perovic Lena & Golem Silvia, 2014. "Social attitudes and regional inequalities," Экономика региона, CyberLeninka;Федеральное государственное бюджетное учреждение науки «Институт экономики Уральского отделения Российской академии наук», issue 1, pages 66-73.
    15. Medina-Durango, Carlos Alberto & Posso Suárez, Christian Manuel & Tamayo, Jorge A. & Monsalve, Emma, 2012. "Dinámica de la demanda laboral en la industria manufacturera colombiana 1993-2009 : una estimación panel VAR," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 7, pages 289-330, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    16. J. Ignacio García‐Pérez & Fernando Muñoz‐Bullón, 2005. "Temporary Help Agencies and Occupational Mobility," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(2), pages 163-180, April.
    17. Hess, Wolfgang & Persson, Maria, 2010. "The Duration of Trade Revisited. Continuous-Time vs. Discrete-Time Hazards," Working Papers 2010:1, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    18. Martin Falk & Katja Seim, 2001. "The Impact Of Information Technology On High-Skilled Labor In Services: Evidence From Firm-Level Panel Data," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 289-323.
    19. Miguel A. Malo & Fernando Munoz-Bullón, "undated". "Temporary help agencies and the labour market biography: A sequences-oriented approach," Studies on the Spanish Economy 132, FEDEA.
    20. Hammerling, Jessie HF, 2022. "Trends in Inter-Firm Transactions Across Industries in the U.S," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9dr868wx, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Flexible working contracts; fixed-term employment; labour demand; adjustment costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    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:zbw:zewdip:5388. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.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.