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Professor Richard Upward, PhD

Professor Richard Upward, PhD
Current Position

since 9/15

Research Professor

Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association

since 2014

Professor of Economics

University of Nottingham

Research Interests
  • labour economics: globalisation and labour markets, job and worker turnover
  • applied econometrics: panel data, linked employer-employee data, duration modelling, treatment evaluation

Richard Upward joined the institute as a Research Professor in September 2015. His research focuses on empirical labour economics and applied econometrics.

Richard Upward holds the position of Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham. Apart from that, he is a Research Fellow in the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy.

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Professor Richard Upward, PhD
Professor Richard Upward, PhD
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Publications

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Working Papers

cover_DP_2023-18.jpg

Safety Net or Helping Hand? The Effect of Job Search Assistance and Compensation on Displaced Workers

Daniel Fackler Jens Stegmaier Richard Upward

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 18, 2023

Abstract

We provide the first systematic evidence on the effectiveness of a contested policy in Germany to help displaced workers. So-called “transfer companies” (<i>Transfergesellschaften</i>) employ displaced workers for a fixed period, during which time workers are provided with job-search assistance and are paid a wage which is a substantial fraction of their pre-displacement wage. Using rich and accurate data on workers’ employment patterns before and after displacement, we compare the earnings and employment outcomes of displaced workers who entered transfer companies with those that did not. Workers can choose whether or not to accept a position in a transfer company, and therefore we use the availability of a transfer company at the establishment level as an IV in a model of one-sided compliance. Using an event study, we find that workers who enter a transfer company have significantly worse post-displacement outcomes, but we show that this is likely to be the result of negative selection: workers who lack good outside opportunities are more likely to choose to enter the transfer company. In contrast, ITT and IV estimates indicate that the use of a transfer company has a positive and significant effect on employment rates five years after job loss, but no significant effect on earnings. In addition, the transfer company provides significant additional compensation to displaced workers in the first 12 months after job loss.

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