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
- Abteilung Arbeitsmärkte
PROJEKTE
01.2020 ‐ 06.2024
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
Publikationen
Works Councils and Separations: Voice, Monopoly, and Insurance Effects
in: Industrial Relations, Vol. 49 (4), 2010
Abstract
Using a large linked employer–employee data set for Germany, we find that the existence of a works council is associated with a lower separation rate to employment, in particular for workers with low tenure. While works council monopoly effects show up in all specifications, clear voice effects are only visible for low tenured workers. Works councils also reduce separations to nonemployment, and this impact is more pronounced for men. Insurance effects only show up for workers with tenure of more than 2 years. Our results indicate that works councils to some extent represent the interests of a specific clientele.
Differences in Labor Supply to Monopsonistic Firms and the Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis Using Linked Employer‐Employee Data from Germany
in: Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 28 (2), 2010
Abstract
This article investigates women’s and men’s labor supply to the firm within a semistructural approach based on a dynamic model of new monopsony. Using methods of survival analysis and a large linked employer‐employee data set for Germany, we find that labor supply elasticities are small (1.9–3.7) and that women’s labor supply to the firm is less elastic than men’s (which is the reverse of gender differences in labor supply usually found at the level of the market). Our results imply that at least one‐third of the gender pay gap might be wage discrimination by profit‐maximizing monopsonistic employers.
The Gender Pay Gap under Duopsony: Joan Robinson meets Harold Hotelling
in: Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 56 (5), 2009
Abstract
This paper presents an alternative explanation of the gender pay gap resting on a simple Hotelling-style duopsony model of the labour market. Since there are only two employers, equally productive women and men have to commute and face travel cost to do so. We assume that some women have higher travel cost, e.g., due to more domestic responsibilities. Employers exploit that women on average are less inclined to commute and offer lower wages to all women. Since women's firm-level labour supply is for this reason less wage-elastic, this model is in line with Robinson's explanation of wage discrimination.
Capital Stock Approximation using Firm Level Panel Data: A Modified Perpetual Inventory Approach
in: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Vol. 228 (4), 2008
Abstract
Many recent studies exploring conditional factor demand or factor substitution issues use firm level panel data. A considerable number of establishment panels contains no direct information on the capital input, necessary for production or cost function estimation. Incorrect measurement of capital leads to biased estimates and casts doubt on any inference on output elasticities or input substitution properties. The perpetual inventory approach, commonly used for long panels, is a method that attenuates these problems. In this paper a modified perpetual inventory approach is proposed. This method provides more reliable measures for capital input when short firm panels are used and no direct information on capital input is available. The empirical results based on a replication study of Addison et al. (2006) support the conclusion that modified perpetual inventory is superior to previous attempts in particular when fixed effects estimation techniques are used. The method thus makes a considerable number of recently established firm panels accessible to more sophisticated production function or factor demand analyses.
Committing To Grow: Employment Targets and Firm Dynamics
in: Review of Economic Studies, 2099
Publikation lesenArbeitspapiere
Off the Labor Supply Curve: The Zero Employer Size Wage Effect Within Large Firms
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 8, 2026
Abstract
We revisit the employer size wage effect (ESWE) – arguably the most basic and influential departure from the law of one price for labor. Our main result is that this canonical fact disappears completely across establishments within the same firm, even though they operate in different local labor markets. We uncover and dissect this fact by including a firm fixed effect in otherwise standard cross-sectional regressions of wages on establishment size. We implement this demanding specification in population-wide triple-linked firm-establishment-employee data in Germany. This result is new in the ESWE literature (for which our paper also provides the first systematic meta-analysis). This wage-size decoupling is hard to square with the view that employment is determined along a finitely elastic employerspecific labor supply curve – i.e., employers pay exactly the minimum needed for the quantity of labor, but no more – the foundation of the monopsony view. By contrast, large multi-establishment firms (MEF) appear to hire off their labor supply curves (or those curves are very elastic), pay wage premia above the monopsonistic minimum, and leave excess labor supply. We find some evidence for a reemergence of the ESWE within low-premium MEFs. Overall, at least for the 25% of German employment in large firms for which the ESWE disappears, wage setting and employment determination may be better accounted for by alternative models, namely accommodating above-market-clearing wage premia and rationing of labor supply, such as efficiency wage theories.
Patents, Firm Rents, and Worker Compensation: Causal Evidence from Quasi-random Patent Allocation
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 6, 2026
Abstract
This paper provides new causal evidence on how patent allowances affect firms and their employees based on quasi-random assignment of patent applications to examiners. Exploiting employer-employee records with newly linked German firm data and web-scraped patent documents, we show that patent-induced shocks reduce firm exit, improve productivity, and increase wages, with rent-sharing elasticities between 0.10 and 0.21. Wage gains are broadly observed across occupational tasks, with high heterogeneity: managers benefit disproportionately in publicly traded firms, whereas broader wage increases accrue to workers in non-traded firms. Our findings highlight the role of institutional features and firm organization in shaping how rents are shared.
Off the Labor Supply Curve: The Zero Employer Size Wage Effect Within Large Firms
in: NBER Working Paper, im Erscheinen
Abstract
We revisit the employer size wage effect (ESWE)—arguably the most basic and influential departure from the law of one price for labor. Our main result is that this canonical fact disappears completely across establishments within the same firm, even though they operate in different local labor markets. We uncover and dissect this fact by including a firm fixed effect in otherwise standard cross-sectional regressions of wages on establishment size. We implement this demanding specification in population-wide triple-linked firm-establishment-employee data in Germany. This result is new in the ESWE literature (for which our paper also provides the first systematic meta-analysis). This wage-size decoupling is hard to square with the view that employment is determined along a finitely elastic employer-specific labor supply curve—i.e., employers pay exactly the minimum needed for the quantity of labor, but no more—the foundation of the monopsony view. By contrast, large multi-establishment firms (MEF) appear to hire off their labor supply curves (or those curves are very elastic), pay wage premia above the monopsonistic minimum, and leave excess labor supply. We find some evidence for a reemergence of the ESWE within low-premium MEFs. Overall, at least for the 25% of German employment in large firms for which the ESWE disappears, wage setting and employment determination may be better accounted for by alternative models, namely accommodating above-market-clearing wage premia and rationing of labor supply, such as efficiency wage theories.
The Geography of Worker-Firm Sorting: Drivers of Rising Colocation
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 22, 2025
Abstract
Spatial segregation of low- and high-wage workers is a persistent economic issue with broad social implications. Using social security data and an AKM wage decomposition, this paper examines spatial wage inequality in West Germany. Spatial inequality in log wages rose sharply between 1998 and 2008, mainly due to increased variance in worker pay premiums across regions (48%) and stronger positive spatial assortative matching of workers and establishments (40%), i.e. colocation. Changes in establishment wage premia are mostly unrelated to rising colocation whereas labor mobility even reduced it. Instead, growth in worker pay premiums among stayers was concentrated in regions where high-wage workers and high-wage establishments were overrepresented already in the 1990s and, thus, magnified pre-existing colocation leading to ‘colocation without relocation’. Germany’s rising trade surplus, especially with Eastern Europe, boosted stayers’ worker pay premiums in those ex-ante high-wage regions and fully explains rising colocation.
The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992-2019
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 25, 2024
Abstract
This paper analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since 1992, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. Inequality rose from the 1990s to the late 2000s due to falling labor incomes among the bottom 50% and rising incomes in the top 10%. This trend reversed after 2007 as labor incomes across the bottom 90% increased. The top 1% income share, dominated by business income, remained relatively stable between 1992 and 2019. A large share of Germany’s top 1% earners are non-corporate business owners in labor-intensive professions. At least half of the business owners in P99-99.9 and a quarter in the top 0.1% operate firms in professional services – a pattern mirroring the United States. From 1992 to 2019, Germany’s top 0.1% income concentration exceeded France’s and matched U.S. levels until the late 2000s.
