IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5117.html

Extensive vs. Intensive Margin in Germany and the United States: Any Differences?

Author

Listed:
  • Merkl, Christian

    (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg)

  • Wesselbaum, Dennis

    (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of the extensive vis-à-vis the intensive margin of labor adjustment in Germany and in the United States. The contribution is twofold. First, we provide an update of older U.S. studies and confirm the view that the extensive margin (i.e., the adjustment in the number of workers) explains the largest part in the overall variability in aggregate hours. Second, although the German labor market structure is very different from its U.S. counterpart, the quantitative importance of the extensive margin is of similar magnitude.

Suggested Citation

  • Merkl, Christian & Wesselbaum, Dennis, 2010. "Extensive vs. Intensive Margin in Germany and the United States: Any Differences?," IZA Discussion Papers 5117, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5117.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Gary D., 1985. "Indivisible labor and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 309-327, November.
    2. Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2010. "Monetary persistence and the labor market: A new perspective," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 968-983, May.
    3. Shigeru Fujita & Garey Ramey, 2009. "The Cyclicality Of Separation And Job Finding Rates," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(2), pages 415-430, May.
    4. Olivier Blanchard & Jordi Galí, 2010. "Labor Markets and Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Model with Unemployment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-30, April.
    5. François Langot & Coralia Quintero-Rojas, 2009. "European vs American Hours Worked: assessing the role of the extensive and intensive margins," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 530-542.
    6. Langot, François & Quintero Rojas, Coralia, 2008. "Explaining the Evolution of Hours Worked and Employment across OECD Countries: An Equilibrium Search Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 3364, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Krause, Michael U. & Lubik, Thomas A., 2007. "The (ir)relevance of real wage rigidity in the New Keynesian model with search frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 706-727, April.
    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. Ronald Bachmann & Peggy Bechara & Anica Kramer & Sylvi Rzepka, 2015. "Labour market dynamics and worker heterogeneity during the Great Recession – Evidence from Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, December.
    2. Klinger, Sabine & Spitznagel, Eugen & Alatalo, Johanna & Berglind, Karin & Gustavsson, Håkan & Kure, Hans & Nio, Ilkka & Salmins, Janis & Skuja, Vita & Sørbø, Johannes, 2012. "The labour markets in Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden 2006-2010 : Developments and challenges for the future," IAB-Forschungsbericht 201207, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    3. Wesselbaum, Dennis, 2016. "The Intensive Margin Puzzle And Labor Market Adjustment Costs," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(6), pages 1458-1476, September.
    4. Dennis, Wesselbaum, 2012. "Gender-speci�c Differences in Labor Market Adjustment Patterns: Evidence from the United States," MPRA Paper 43040, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Jung, Sven, 2013. "Employment Adjustment in German Firms," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79696, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Makoto Kakinaka & Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2012. "Extensive vs. Intensive Margin in Japan," Working Papers EMS_2012_14, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    7. Jung, Sven, 2012. "Employment adjustment in German firms," Discussion Papers 80, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.

    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. Federico Di Pace & Matthias Hertweck, 2019. "Labor Market Frictions, Monetary Policy, and Durable Goods," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 32, pages 274-304, April.
    2. Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2010. "Monetary persistence and the labor market: A new perspective," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 968-983, May.
    3. Ester Faia & Wolfgang Lechthaler & Christian Merkl, 2014. "Labor Selection, Turnover Costs, and Optimal Monetary Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(1), pages 115-144, February.
    4. Dennis Wesselbaum, 2014. "Firing tax vs severance payments – an unequal comparison," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(5), pages 721-736, September.
    5. Krause, Michael U. & Lopez-Salido, David J. & Lubik, Thomas A., 2008. "Do search frictions matter for inflation dynamics?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1464-1479, November.
    6. Rujin, Svetlana, 2024. "Labor market institutions and technology-induced labor adjustment along the extensive and intensive margins," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Imen Ben Mohamed & Marine Salès, 2015. "Credit imperfections, labor market frictions and unemployment: a DSGE approach," Working Papers hal-01082491, HAL.
    8. Wesselbaum, Dennis, 2016. "The Intensive Margin Puzzle And Labor Market Adjustment Costs," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(6), pages 1458-1476, September.
    9. Nikolaos Kokonas & Paulo Santos Monteiro, 2025. "Equilibrium labour force participation and the business cycle," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(367), pages 783-822, July.
    10. Jósef Sigurdsson, 2011. "Unemployment Dynamics and Cyclical Fluctuations in the Icelandic Labour Market," Economics wp56, Department of Economics, Central bank of Iceland.
    11. Josué Diwambuena & Raquel Fonseca & Stefan Schubert, 2021. "Italian Labour Frictions and Wage Rigidities in an Estimated DSGE," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS88, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    12. Imen Ben Mohamed & Marine Salès, 2015. "Credit imperfections, labor market frictions and unemployment: a DSGE approach," Working Papers hal-01082471, HAL.
    13. Kienzler, Daniel, 2012. "Long-term Unemployment over the Business Cycle, Skill Loss, and Monetary Policy," Working Papers on Finance 1205, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    14. Lawrence Christiano & Mathias Trabandt & Karl Walentin, 2021. "Involuntary Unemployment and the Business Cycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 39, pages 26-54, January.
    15. Auray, Stéphane & de Blas, Beatriz, 2013. "Investment, matching and persistence in a modified cash-in-advance economy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 591-610.
    16. Kohlbrecher, Britta, 2016. "Optimal Monetary Policy under Rigid Wages and Decreasing Returns," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145867, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Balleer, Almut & Gehrke, Britta & Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian, 2016. "Does short-time work save jobs? A business cycle analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 99-122.
    18. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin S. Eichenbaum & Mathias Trabandt, 2016. "Unemployment and Business Cycles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84(4), pages 1523-1569, July.
    19. Gábor Pintér, 2019. "House Prices and Job Losses," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(618), pages 991-1013.
    20. Isabel Cairo & Shigeru Fujita & Camilo Morales-Jimenez, 2022. "The Cyclicality of Labor Force Participation Flows: The Role of Labor," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 43, pages 197-216, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    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:iza:izadps:dp5117. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.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.