SPP 1764:  The German Labour Market in a Globalised World: Challenges through Trade, Technology and Demographics

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences ; Humanities
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237420391

The recent severe recession has led to a reassessment of labour market policies across many industrialised countries. Technological change and changes in the division of labour, trade liberalisation, increasing labour mobility, demographic changes, low fertility rates, changes in labour force participation as well as labour market reforms have reshaped the way economies and their labour markets operate. The central purpose of the Priority Programme is to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges facing labour markets in Germany in particular and throughout Europe in a global context.
The Priority Programme addresses pertinent research issues on the link between trade, technology and demographic changes as they affect wages and employment. In an international perspective, the Priority Programme will analyse empirically the way the German labour market works with particular emphasis on labour market flows, on the role of institutions and policies, on the explanation for the increase in inequality, on demographic changes and on the links to education and important non-economic motives and outcomes.
An understanding of these issues is key for policies relating to skills development of the population at all ages, family issues and gender in the labour market, demography, child development, health, social policies, crime, immigration, as well as the macroeconomic performance of the labour market. The challenges posed by competition and potential immigration combined with demographic developments will not only affect various labour market groups in different ways, but also force human resource management practices to adapt.
The Priority Programme will take an interdisciplinary approach linking economic research with research in sociology and in human resource management and organisation in business administration. Building on theoretical contributions, the Priority Programme mainly involves empirical research making use of large micro-data sets with an emphasis on a comprehensive descriptive analysis or on estimating causal effects in the treatment-control group paradigm.
A particular focus will be given to projects that investigate labour market flows from micro- and macro-economic perspectives. Trademarks of this Priority Programme are the access to individual-level and firm-level labour market data of exceptional quality, state-of-the-art experiments and the close link to the policy debate.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, USA

Projects

• Accounting for Selection Effects in the Analysis of Wage Inequality in Germany (Applicant Biewen, Martin )
• Causal determinants of maternal labor market outcomes and child development (Applicant Riphahn, Ph.D., Regina Therese )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Fitzenberger, Ph.D., Bernd )
• Custom Shaped Administrative Data for the Analysis of Labor Markets (CADAL) (Applicants vom Berge, Philipp ;  Heining, Joerg )
• Custom Shaped Administrative Data for the Analysis of Labor Markets (CADAL) (Applicants vom Berge, Philipp ;  Möller, Joachim )
• Demographic Change and Regional Labour Markets (Applicant Bauer, Thomas K. )
• Der Mindestlohn in Deutschland: Wirkung auf Beschäftigung, Lohn und Reallokation (Applicant vom Berge, Philipp )
• Determinants of old age employment (Applicant Zwick, Thomas )
• Employer and Worker Adjustments to Economic Shocks (Applicants Prantl, Susanne ;  Spitz-Oener, Alexandra )
• Female Employment Patterns, Fertility, Labor Market Reforms, and Firms: A Dynamic Treatment Approach (Applicants Fitzenberger, Ph.D., Bernd ;  Paul, Marie )
• Firms and gender differences in job mobility: A study of the role of personnel practices and organizational context with German linked employer-employee data (Applicant Gangl, Markus )
• Human Resource Management and Employee Retention: Empirical Analyses using new Linked Employer-Employee Data (Applicants Kampkötter, Patrick ;  Sliwka, Dirk ;  Steffes, Susanne )
• Labor market policy assignment at entry into unemployment: Analysis using machine learning techniques and randomized controlled trials (Applicants van den Berg, Gerard J. ;  Stephan, Gesine )
• Labor Market Reforms and the Macroeconomic Supply Side in the Short and Long Run (Applicant Burda, Ph.D., Michael Christopher )
• Local Labor Market Effects of Plant Openings, New Colleges and Local Public Spending (Applicants Gathmann, Ph.D., Christina ;  Schönberg, Ph.D., Uta )
• Matching Young People to Apprenticeships in Challenging Times - Employers' Recruitment and Selection Practices in the German Apprenticeship Market (Applicant Protsch, Paula )
• Organizational Structure, Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality in Germany: an Empirical Study Using Linked Employer-Employee Data (Applicant Gangl, Markus )
• Refugees: Labor Market Integration and Impact on Natives (Applicants Brücker, Herbert ;  Spitz-Oener, Alexandra )
• Skill Development Within and Outside School, Nonacademic Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes (Applicant Osikominu, Aderonke )
• Spillover Effects of Mass Layoffs (Applicants Gathmann, Ph.D., Christina ;  Schönberg, Ph.D., Uta )
• The 2004 Deregulation of Germanys Crafts and Trades: Its Consequences for Skills, Careers and Firms (Applicants Gathmann, Ph.D., Christina ;  Hillmann, Ph.D., Henning )
• The causal impact of trade integration on individual workers: job stability, earnings, and geographical labor mobility (Applicants Dauth, Wolfgang ;  Findeisen, Sebastian ;  Südekum, Jens )
• The Dynamic Impact of Immigration on Wages, Employment, Technology and Innovation (Applicant Dustmann, Ph.D., Christian )
• The effect of regional internet availability on search and matching outcomes (Applicants van den Berg, Gerard J. ;  Guertzgen, Nicole )
• The effect of the demographic change on inequality and the role of the pension system: Evidence from social security data and a dynamic structural life-cycle model (Applicant Haan, Peter )
• The effects of macroeconomic changes on labor market mobility, job stability, and returns to tenure in Germany (Applicants Jung, Philip ;  Kuhn, Moritz )
• The labour market integration of skilled migrants in international comparison (Applicants Abraham, Martin ;  Damelang, Andreas )
• Transnational Labor Markets: Migration of Workers between Austria and Germany (Applicants Weber, Andrea ;  Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf )
• Using randomized field experiments to evaluate support programs for older and low-skilled workers with combined survey-register data (Applicants van den Berg, Gerard J. ;  Stephan, Gesine )
• Wages, Heterogeneities, and Labor Market Dynamics (Applicants Merkl, Christian ;  Stüber, Heiko )

• Spokesperson: Professor Bernd Fitzenberger, Ph.D., until 12/2020