The Aggregate Effects of the Hartz Reforms in Germany

Matthias Hertweck and Oliver Sigrist

Working papers from Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel

Abstract: This paper quantifies the impact of the Hartz reforms on matching efficiency, using monthly SOEP gross worker flows (1983-2009). We show that, until the early 2000s, close to 60% of changes in the unemployment rate are due to changes in the inflow rate (job separation). On the contrary, since the implementation of the reforms in the mid-2000s, the importance of the outflow rate (job finding) has been steadily increasing. This indicates that matching efficiency has improved substantially in recent years. Results from an estimated matching function pointing to efficiency gains of more than 20% corroborate this finding.

Keywords: SOEP gross worker flows; Hartz reform; matching efficiency; unemployment fluctuations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 E32 J63 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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https://edoc.unibas.ch/42715/1/hertweck-sigrist-2012.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Aggregate Effects of the Hartz Reforms in Germany (2013)
Working Paper: The Aggregate Effects of the Hartz Reforms in Germany (2013)
Working Paper: The Aggregate Effects of the Hartz Reforms in Germany (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2013/01

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