Fixing the leak: unemployment incidence before and after the 2006 reform of unemployment benefits in Germany

Stephan Dlugosz, Gesine Stephan and Ralf Wilke

No 09-079, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: From 2002-2004, the German government passed several laws that curtailed the generosity of the unemployment compensation system. One of the most ambitious changes was a considerable reduction in unemployment benefit entitlement lengths for older unemployed, which was effective during 2006 and 2007. We apply a difference-in-differences approach to show that the highly disputed reform induced a considerable decline in unemployment incidence among older workers. It thus sealed an important leak in the unemployment insurance system. Furthermore, we find a strong anticipation effect; unemployment entries of elderly workers peaked during the months preceding the reform.

Keywords: unemployment incidence; policy evaluation; administrative data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J63 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Fixing the leak: Unemployment incidence before and after the 2006 reform of unemployment benefits in Germany (2009)
Working Paper: Fixing the leak: Unemployment incidence before and after the 2006 reform of unemployment benefits in Germany (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09079

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