Betriebliche Dynamiken und Beschäftigungsergebnisse
Firmengründungen und -schließungen sind in einer Marktwirtschaft für die Reallokation von Ressourcen, strukturellen Wandel und damit für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung von zentraler Bedeutung und spielen vor allem im Hinblick auf die wirtschaftliche Transformation Ostdeutschlands eine zentrale Rolle. Gleichzeitig können die mit dem Strukturwandel verbundenen Arbeitsplatzverluste dramatische Folgen für betroffene Arbeitnehmer haben, wie z.B. Arbeitslosigkeit, Einkommensverluste oder eine geringere Arbeitsplatzqualität. Diese Forschungsgruppe untersucht mithilfe mikroökonometrischer Methoden Gründungen, Wachstumsprozesse und das Scheitern von Unternehmen, die Anzahl und Qualität der von Neugründungen geschaffenen Arbeitsplätze und die Folgen von Firmenschließungen für betroffene Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitnehmerinnen, vor allem in Bezug auf Arbeitsmarktergebnisse wie Beschäftigung und Löhne.
Forschungscluster
Produktivität und InstitutionenIhr Kontakt

Mitglied - Abteilung Strukturwandel und Produktivität
PROJEKTE
01.2020 ‐ 12.2023
Europas populistische Parteien im Aufwind: die dunkle Seite von Globalisierung und technologischem Wandel?
VolkswagenStiftung
Die Globalisierung hat zwar allgemein den Wohlstand gesteigert, aber in vielen Regionen Europas auch zu Arbeitslosigkeit, Lohnungleichheit, Abwanderung und Überalterung geführt. Das Projekt untersucht, ob diese ökonomischen Lasten zu Wählerstimmen für populistische Parteien führen.
01.2019 ‐ 06.2022
MICROPROD („Raising EU Productivity: Lessons from Improved Micro Data“)
Europäische Kommission
Ziel von MICROPROD ist es, zu einem besseren Verständnis der Herausforderungen beizutragen, die die vierte industrielle Revolution in Europa mit sich bringt. Verliert das Produktivitätswachstum im Kontext von Globalisierung und Digitalisierung an Schwung, und wenn ja, warum?
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 764810.
07.2018 ‐ 12.2020
Firmenlohndifferentiale in unvollkommenen Arbeitsmärkten: Die Rolle von Marktmacht und industriellen Beziehungen in der Aufteilung der Beschäftigungsrenten zwischen Arbeitnehmern und Arbeitgebern
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Ziel dieses Projekts ist es, die Aufteilung der Beschäftigungsrenten auf unvollkommenen Arbeitsmärkten und den Einfluss von Arbeitsmarktinstitutionen wie Tarifbindung und betrieblicher Mitbestimmung auf Firmenlohndifferentiale zu untersuchen. Über die Grundlagenforschung hinaus hat das Projekt damit Potential, wichtige wirtschaftspolitische Debatten zur institutionellen Ausgestaltung des Lohnfindungsprozesses zu informieren.
02.2019 ‐ 09.2019
Auswertung des IAB-Betriebspanels 2018 und Erstellung eines Ergebnisberichts für West- und Ostdeutschland
04.2016 ‐ 03.2019
Lohn- und Beschäftigungseffekte von Insolvenzen
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Ziel des Projekts ist es, erstmals den Prozess und die Folgen des Scheiterns von Unternehmen ausführlich zu analysieren. Insbesondere ist es im Rahmen dieses Projekts erstmals möglich, die Folgen kleinbetrieblicher Insolvenzen zu erforschen, was vor allem deshalb relevant ist, weil Arbeitnehmer in Betrieben mit weniger als zehn Beschäftigten etwa viermal so häufig von Insolvenzen betroffen sind wie Arbeitnehmer in Großbetrieben.
01.2018 ‐ 12.2018
Auswertung des IAB-Betriebspanels 2017 und Erstellung eines Ergebnisberichts für West- und Ostdeutschland
01.2017 ‐ 09.2017
Auswertung des IAB-Betriebspanels 2016 und Erstellung eines Ergebnisberichts für West- und Ostdeutschland
Referierte Publikationen

Plant-level Employment Development before Collective Displacements: Comparing Mass Layoffs, Plant Closures and Bankruptcies
in: Applied Economics, Nr. 50, 2018
Abstract
This article analyzes the development of employment levels and worker flows before bankruptcies, plant closure without bankruptcies and mass layoffs. Utilizing administrative plant-level data for Germany, we find no systematic employment reductions prior to mass layoffs, a strong and long-lasting reduction prior to closures, and a much shorter shadow of death preceding bankruptcies. Employment reductions in closing plants, in contrast to bankruptcies and mass layoffs, do not come along with increased worker flows. These patterns point to an intended and controlled shrinking strategy for closures without bankruptcy and to an unintended collapse for bankruptcies and mass layoffs.

Size of Training Firms – The Role of Firms, Luck, and Ability in Young Workers’ Careers
in: International Journal of Manpower, Nr. 5, 2018
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how long-run unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of their training firm and their ability.

Africa’s Skill Tragedy
in: Journal of Human Resources, Nr. 3, 2018
Abstract
We study the importance of teacher subject knowledge for student performance in Sub-Saharan Africa using unique international assessment data for sixth-grade students and their teachers. To circumvent bias due to unobserved student heterogeneity, we exploit variation within students across math and reading. Teacher subject knowledge has a modest impact on student performance. Exploiting vast cross-country differences in economic development, we find that teacher knowledge is effective only in more developed African countries. Results are robust to adding teacher fixed effects and accounting for potential sorting based on subject-specific factors.

Do Employers Have More Monopsony Power in Slack Labor Markets?
in: ILR Review, Nr. 3, 2018
Abstract
This article confronts monopsony theory’s predictions regarding workers’ wages with observed wage patterns over the business cycle. Using German administrative data for the years 1985 to 2010 and an estimation framework based on duration models, the authors construct a time series of the labor supply elasticity to the firm and estimate its relationship to the unemployment rate. They find that firms possess more monopsony power during economic downturns. Half of this cyclicality stems from workers’ job separations being less wage driven when unemployment rises, and the other half mirrors that firms find it relatively easier to poach workers. Results show that the cyclicality is more pronounced in tight labor markets with low unemployment, and that the findings are robust to controlling for time-invariant unobserved worker or plant heterogeneity. The authors further document that cyclical changes in workers’ entry wages are of similar magnitude as those predicted under pure monopsonistic wage setting.

Losing Work, Moving Away? Regional Mobility After Job Loss
in: LABOUR: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, Nr. 4, 2017
Abstract
Using German survey data, we investigate the relationship between involuntary job loss and regional mobility. Our results show that job loss has a strong positive effect on the propensity to relocate. We also analyse whether displaced workers who relocate to a different region after job loss are better able to catch up with non-displaced workers in terms of labour market performance than those staying in the same region. Our findings do not support this conjecture as we find substantial long-lasting earnings losses for movers and stayers and even slightly but not significantly higher losses for movers.
Arbeitspapiere

Safety Net or Helping Hand? The Effect of Job Search Assistance and Compensation on Displaced Workers
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 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.

Committing to Grow: Privatizations and Firm Dynamics in East Germany
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 17, 2023
Abstract
This paper investigates a unique policy designed to maintain employment during the privatization of East German firms after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The policy required new owners of the firms to commit to employment targets, with penalties for non-compliance. Using a dynamic model, we highlight three channels through which employment targets impact firms: distorted employment decisions, increased productivity, and higher exit rates. Our empirical analysis, using a novel dataset and instrumental variable approach, confirms these findings. We estimate a 22% points higher annual employment growth rate, a 14% points higher annual productivity growth, and a 3.6% points higher probability of exit for firms with binding employment targets. Our calibrated model further demonstrates that without these targets, aggregate employment would have been 15% lower after 10 years. Additionally, an alternative policy of productivity investment subsidies proved costly and less effective in the short term.

Why Is the Roy-Borjas Model Unable to Predict International Migrant Selection on Education? Evidence from Urban and Rural Mexico
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 16, 2023
Abstract
The Roy-Borjas model predicts that international migrants are less educated than nonmigrants because the returns to education are generally higher in developing (migrant-sending) than in developed (migrant-receiving) countries. However, empirical evidence often shows the opposite. Using the case of Mexico-U.S. migration, we show that this inconsistency between predictions and empirical evidence can be resolved when the human capital of migrants is assessed using a two-dimensional measure of occupational skills rather than by educational attainment. Thus, focusing on a single skill dimension when investigating migrant selection can lead to misleading conclusions about the underlying economic incentives and behavioral models of migration.

Do Role Models Matter in Large Classes? New Evidence on Gender Match Effects in Higher Education
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 14, 2023
Abstract
It is well established that female students perform better when taught by female professors. However, little is known about the mechanisms explaining these gender match effects. Using administrative records from a German public university, which cover all programs and courses between 2006 and 2018, we show that gender match effects are sizable in smaller classes, but are absent in larger classes. These results suggest that direct and frequent interactions between students and professors are crucial for gender match effects to emerge. In contrast, the mere fact that one’s professor is female is not sufficient to increase performance of female students.

Where Do STEM Graduates Stem from? The Intergenerational Transmission of Comparative Skill Advantages
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 13, 2023
Abstract
The standard economic model of occupational choice following a basic Roy model emphasizes individual selection and comparative advantage, but the sources of comparative advantage are not well understood. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations and permits analysis of the intergenerational transmission of comparative skill advantages. Exploiting within-family between-subject variation in skills, we show that comparative advantages in math of parents are significantly linked to those of their children. A causal interpretation follows from a novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parent skill advantages due to their teacher and classroom peer quality. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.