Abstract
Unemployment dynamics differ markedly between the U.S. and Germany: over the 1980s and 1990s, spells of unemployment have been considerably shorter, and sectoral mobility rates were consistently higher among displaced workers in the U.S. than those experienced by German workers. In the light of earlier research on Germany’s strongly skill- and occupation-based labor market structures, the current paper addresses whether long spell durations among German workers reflect constraining effects of tight labor market structures that inhibit processes of adjustment to structural changes in the economy. While event history analyses of longitudinal micro data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the IAB Employment Register File show many cross-national similarities in unemployment processes, they also consistently establish stronger sectoral effects on re-employment rates in the German labor market. Interestingly, while U.S.-German differences in labor market dynamics are very well suited to explain the observed cross-national differences in unemployment duration, labor market structures do not provide an adequate explanation of country differences in post-unemployment occupational outcomes. Rather than facing unduly constraining market structures, unemployed workers in Germany in fact appear to respond more easily to changing economic structures than common for U.S. workers.
Published Version
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