Weather-related Employment Subsidies as a Remedy for Seasonal Unemployment? Evidence from Germany

Arntz M, Wilke RA (2012)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2012

Journal

Labour Blackwell Publishing Inc.

Book Volume: 26

Pages Range: 266-286

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9914.2012.00547.x

Abstract

Many European countries try to reduce seasonal unemployment by subsidizing short-time employment during the winter period. Despite such costly efforts, pronounced seasonal unemployment patterns continue to exist. This puts doubts on the effectiveness of such policy interventions. This paper provides a first empirical assessment of the effectiveness of different subsidy schemes by exploiting the institutional variation in a German subsidy scheme that applies to the construction sector and the variation in local weather and business cycle conditions across 20 years. The findings confirm that generous short-time subsidies reduce individual lay-off probabilities in the case of poor weather conditions. However, the link between weather conditions and seasonal lay-offs is much less strong than expected, making planned capacity reductions the main suspect for causing seasonality in unemployment patterns. © 2012 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Involved external institutions

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg DE Germany (DE) University of York GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Arntz, M., & Wilke, R.A. (2012). Weather-related Employment Subsidies as a Remedy for Seasonal Unemployment? Evidence from Germany. Labour, 26(2), 266-286. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2012.00547.x

MLA:

Arntz, Melanie, and Ralf A. Wilke. "Weather-related Employment Subsidies as a Remedy for Seasonal Unemployment? Evidence from Germany." Labour 26.2 (2012): 266-286.

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