scholarly journals Short-time work in the Great Recession: firm-level evidence from 20 EU countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reamonn Lydon ◽  
Thomas Y. Mathä ◽  
Stephen Millard
2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-260
Author(s):  
Almut Balleer ◽  
Britta Gehrke ◽  
Brigitte Hochmuth ◽  
Christian Merkl

Abstract This article argues that short-time work stabilized employment in Germany substantially during the Great Recession in 2008/09. The labor market instrument acted in timely manner, as it was used in a rule-based fashion. In addition, discretionary extensions were effective due to their interaction with the business cycle. To ensure that short-time work will be effective in the future, this article proposes an automatic facilitation of the access to short-time work in severe recessions. This reduces the likelihood of a too extensive use at the wrong point in time as well as structural instead of cyclical interventions.


SERIEs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafuente ◽  
Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis ◽  
Ludo Visschers

AbstractWe investigate the behavior of aggregate hours supplied by workers in permanent (open-ended) contracts and temporary contracts, distinguishing changes in employment (extensive margin) and hours per worker (intensive margin). We focus on the differences between the Great Recession and the start of the COVID-19 Recession. In the Great Recession, the loss in aggregate hours is largely accounted for by employment losses (hours per worker did not adjust) and initially mainly by workers in temporary contracts. In contrast, in the early stages of the COVID-19 Recession, approximately sixty percent of the drop in aggregate hours is accounted for by permanent workers that do not only adjust hours per worker (beyond average) but also face employment losses—accounting for one-third of the total employment losses in the economy. We argue that our comparison across recessions allows for a more general discussion on the impact of adjustment frictions in the dual labor market and the effects policy, in particular the short-time work policy (ERTE) in Spain.


Global Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 30-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Herzog-Stein ◽  
Gustav A. Horn ◽  
Ulrike Stein

Author(s):  
Daniel Kopp ◽  
Michael Siegenthaler

Abstract We study whether the Swiss short-time work (STW) program reduced unemployment in and after the Great Recession using quarterly establishment-level panel data linking administrative data sources. We compare changes in layoffs into unemployment, employment, and establishment survival between establishments that applied successfully and establishments that applied unsuccessfully for STW at cantonal employment agencies. The unsuccessful establishments provide a valid counterfactual for the successful ones because cantonal approval practices are partly idiosyncratic. We find that STW increases establishment survival and prevents rather than postpones dismissals. The 7,857 establishments treated in 2009 would have dismissed 20,600 additional workers into unemployment (0.47% of the labor force) until 2012. Most workers would have been dismissed in the quarters immediately following the application, and more than a third would have become long-term unemployed. The savings on unemployment benefits may have compensated for the spending on STW benefits.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Brey ◽  
Matthias S. Hertweck

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of short-time work (STW) extensions—e.g., relaxing eligibility criteria or implementing new schemes—in OECD countries during the Great Recession. First, we find that the dampening effect of STW on the unemployment rate diminishes at higher take-up rates. Second, only countries with pre-existing STW schemes were able to fully exploit the benefits of STW. Third, the effects of STW were strongest when GDP growth was deeply negative at the beginning of the recession. In summary, our results indicate that STW is most effective when used as a fast-responding automatic stabilizer.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Brenke ◽  
Ulf Rinne ◽  
Klaus F. Zimmermann

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