The contribution of wage developments to labour market performance. DG ECFIN, European Economy, Special Report 1/2005
Herbert Buscher, Christian Dreger, Manuel Artís, Miquel Clar, Raúl Ramos
,
2005
Abstract
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A Game Theoretic Analysis of the Conditions of Knowledge Transfer by New Employees in Companies
Sidonia vonLedebur
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 3,
2006
Abstract
The availability of knowledge is an essential factor for an economy in global competition. Companies realise innovations by creating and implementing new knowledge. Sources of innovative ideas are partners in the production network but also new employees coming from another company or academia. Based on a model by HECKATHORN (1996) the conditions of efficient knowledge transfer in a team are analysed. Offering knowledge to a colleague can not be controlled directly by the company due to information asymmetries. Thus the management has to provide incentives which motivate the employees to act in favour of the company by providing their knowledge to the rest of the team and likewise to learn from colleagues. The game theoretic analysis aims at investigating how to arrange these incentives efficiently. Several factors are relevant, especially the individual costs of participating in the transfer. These consist mainly of the existing absorptive capacity and the working atmosphere. The model is a 2x2 game but is at least partly generalised on more players. The relevance of the adequate team size is shown: more developers may increase the total profit of an innovation
(before paying the involved people) but when additional wages are paid to each person a greater team decreases the remaining company profit. A further result is
that depending on the cost structure perfect knowledge transfer is not always best for the profit of the company. These formal results are consistent with empirical studies to the absorptive capacity and the working atmosphere.
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Determinants of employment - the macroeconomic view
Christian Dreger, Heinz P. Galler, Ulrich (eds) Walwai
Schriften des IWH,
No. 22,
2005
Abstract
The weak performance of the German labour market over the past years has led to a significant unemployment problem. Currently, on average 4.5 mio. people are without a job contract, and a large part of them are long-term unemployed. A longer period of unemployment reduces their employability and aggravates the problem of social exclusion.
The factors driving the evolution of employment have been recently discussed on the workshop Determinanten der Beschäftigung – die makroökonomische Sicht organized jointly by the IAB, Nuremberg, and the IWH, Halle. The present volume contains the papers and proceedings to the policy oriented workshop held in November 2004, 15-16th. The main focus of the contributions is twofold. First, macroeconomic conditions to stimulate output and employment are considered. Second, the impacts of the increasing tax wedge between labour costs and the take home pay are emphasized. In particular, the role of the contributions to the social security system is investigated.
In his introductory address, Ulrich Walwei (IAB) links the unemployment experience to the modest path of economic growth in Germany. In addition, the low employment intensity of GDP growth and the temporary standstill of the convergence process of the East German economy have contributed to the weak labour market performance. In his analysis, Gebhard Flaig (ifo Institute, München) stresses the importance of relative factor price developments. A higher rate of wage growth leads to a decrease of the employment intensity of production, and correspondingly to an increase of the threshold of employment. Christian Dreger (IWH) discusses the relevance of labour market institutions like employment protection legislation and the structure of the wage bargaining process on the labour market outcome. Compared to the current setting, policies should try to introduce more flexibility in labour markets to improve the employment record. The impact of interest rate shocks on production is examined by the paper of Boris Hofmann (Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt). According to the empirical evidence, monetary policy cannot explain the modest economic performance in Germany. György Barabas and Roland Döhrn (RWI Essen) have simulated the effects of a world trade shock on output and employment. The relationships have been fairly stable over the past years, even in light of the increasing globalization. Income and employment effects of the German tax reform in 2000 are discussed by Peter Haan and Viktor Steiner (DIW Berlin). On the base of a microsimulation model, household gains are determined. Also, a positive relationship between wages and labour supply can be established. Michael Feil und Gerd Zika (IAB) have examined the employment effects of a reduction of the contribution rates to the social security system. To obtain robust results, the analysis is done under alternative financing scenarios and with different macroeconometric models. The impacts of allowances of social security contributions on the incentives to work are discussed by Wolfgang Meister and Wolfgang Ochel (ifo München). According to their study, willingness to work is expected to increase especially at the lower end of the income distribution. The implied loss of contributions could be financed by higher taxes.
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The Impact of Institutions on the Employment Performance in European Labour Markets
Herbert S. Buscher, Christian Dreger, Raúl Ramos, Jordi Surinach
Discussion Paper No. 1732,
2005
Abstract
The paper investigates the role of institutions for labor market performance across European countries. As participation rates have been rather stable over the past, the unemployment problem is mainly caused by shortages in labor demand. Labor demand is expressed by its structural parameters, such as the elasticities of employment to output and factor prices. Institutional variables include employment protection legislation, the structure of wage bargaining, measures describing the tax and transfer system and active labor market policies. As cointegration between employment, output and factor prices is detected, labor demand equations are fitted in levels by efficient estimation techniques. Then, labor demand elasticities are explained by institutions using panel fixed effects regressions. The results suggest that higher flexibility and incentives of households to work appear to be appropriate strategies to improve the employment record. The employment response to economic conditions is stronger in a more deregulated environment, and the absorption of shocks can be relieved.
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Business activity updated: German economy features a slow start into 2005
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 3,
2005
Abstract
Die ersten Monate des Jahres 2005 warteten mit einigen unangenehmen Überraschungen für die Konjunktur auf. Der Ölpreis überschritt erneut die 50-Dollar-Marke. Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit zählte 5,2 Millionen Arbeitslose, und das Statistische Bundesamt meldete im Februar für das Schlussquartal des vergangenen Jahres einen Rückgang der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Produktion. Zeitgleich fielen auch einige Stimmungsindikatoren. So scheint zu Jahresbeginn die konjunkturelle Zukunft trüber als zuletzt erwartet. Den Hiobsbotschaften zum Trotz: An den äußeren und inneren Rahmenbedingungen der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung hat sich fundamental wenig geändert. In Japan und in der Eurozone schwächelte die Konjunktur zwar zum Jahresende. In den Wachstumszentren der Weltwirtschaft nahm die Produktion aber erneut mit hohen Raten zu. Der Investitionsboom ist hier ungebrochen. Hohe Gewinne und historisch niedrige Kapitalmarktzinsen regen weiterhin an. Die positiven Impulse, die 2005 von den Kapitalmärkten auf die reale Wirtschaft ausgehen, werden im Frühjahr auch die Entwicklung in Japan und in der Eurozone wieder beleben. Die Notierungen für Rohöl werden nach dem Rückzug des Winters etwas nachgeben...
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Flexible utilization of labor strengthens industrial enterprises´ ability to adapt to fluctuations in business - an empirical east-west comparison based on the IAB company panel
Brigitte Loose, Udo Ludwig
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 12,
2004
Abstract
Based on an individual data set, this article investigates the question of which conventional methods and new instruments companies use to adapt to fluctuations in business and what distinguishes these companies from other ones which have not implemented such instruments. In particular, the role of the technical equipment as well as the personnel policy and tariff policy are analyzed. An empirical comparison between the East and West German manufacturing industries demonstrates whether East German firms have competitive advantages. While the technological conditions for firms´ flexibility are somewhat less pronounced in East German, the proportion of “standardized“ and flexible employment is nearly the same in the East-West comparison. Differences exist among small, middle-sized and large firms as well as among types of yield. The weak orientation with respect to agreed wages and hours worked as well as the mainly gratuitous reduction of unpaid overtime which can be implemented over the whole year, prove to be an advantage. The investigation is based on a data set from the IAB company panel of manufacturing industries in 2003.
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Hartz IV: 1-Euro-Jobs setzen falsche Anreize
Herbert Buscher
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 11,
2004
Abstract
The paper analyzes the different incentives due to different possibilities of additional earnings to the receipt of unemployment benefits. Long term unemployed people may earn additional income due to a regular occupation in the first labor market or due to social work. In the latter case people receive a expense allowance which they are allowed to hold for the full amount. Contrary to this income earned in a regular job is partly reduced (by 85 % for the first 400 Euro, e.g.) which might make working in the social or common sector more attractive than working in the first labor market. Secondly, given the unemployment benefits and the additional amount of earnings it might be more attractive with respect to total income than the income earned in the low wage sector of the economy. This might imply a negative incentive for those who are working in a low wage sector.
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Profits of East German industrial companies are slowly catching up
Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch, Udo Ludwig
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 3,
2004
Abstract
The article is concerned with the development of unit costs in eastern and western German manufacturing firms from the early 90’s onwards. By 2001 unit costs in the east had fallen almost to the corresponding western level, which in part is due to the suspension of the existing labour agreements in the second half of the 90’s. Nonetheless, the rate of return in the east remains smaller than in the west, which is mainly induced by the high costs of rebuilding the capital stock. It follows that unit labour costs can not be the sole basis for the wage bargaining process.
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“Law on loyalty to collectively agreed standards“ - no means for adjusting competitive conditions in construction industry
Andrea Besenthal
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 2,
2004
Abstract
Due to the increasing competition from abroad which is able to offer services for lower prices because of lower wage standards the stress of competition intensifies in Germany. With regard to West Germany the East German companies - paying lower wages – represent an immediate business competition. The supporter of the Tariftreuegesetze (laws concerning the construction industry which restrict public contracts only to contractors who pay union wages) see the laws` advantage in eliminating the existing differences in competitive conditions, which emerge from differences on the wage level. The IWH study concludes that the named wage laws do not seem necessary from an economic point of view.
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Excessive wage increases dampen capital spending
Klaus Weyerstraß
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 16,
2003
Abstract
Considering the debate about the opposite effects of rising wages for employee’s income and employer’s costs, the relationship between wage changes and investment is being investigated on an econometric basis for the years 1971 to 2003. The results show that the dynamics of investment activity slows down as real wages rise more than productivity increases.
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