@techreport{CaliendoKuennMahlstedt2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and K{\"u}nn, Steffen and Mahlstedt, Robert}, title = {The Intended and Unintended Effects of Promoting Labor Market Mobility}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-53522}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-535229}, pages = {49}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Subsidizing the geographical mobility of unemployed workers may improve welfare by relaxing their financial constraints and allowing them to find jobs in more prosperous regions. We exploit regional variation in the promotion of mobility programs along administrative borders of German employment agency districts to investigate the causal effect of offering such financial incentives on the job search behavior and labor market integration of unemployed workers. We show that promoting mobility - as intended - causes job seekers to increase their search radius, apply for and accept distant jobs. At the same time, local job search is reduced with adverse consequences for reemployment and earnings. These unintended negative effects are provoked by spatial search frictions. Overall, the unconditional provision of mobility programs harms the welfare of unemployed job seekers.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoMahlstedtvandenBergetal.2020, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Mahlstedt, Robert and van den Berg, Gerard J. and Vikstr{\"o}m, Johan}, title = {Side Effects of Labor Market Policies}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {22}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-47883}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-478839}, pages = {33}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Labor market policy tools such as training and sanctions are commonly used to help bring workers back to work. By analogy to medical treatments, the individual exposure to these tools may have side effects. We study effects on health using individual-level population registers on labor market events outcomes, drug prescriptions and sickness absence, comparing outcomes before and after exposure to training and sanctions. We find that training improves cardiovascular and mental health and lowers sickness absence. The results suggest that this is not due to improved employment prospects but rather to instantaneous features of participation such as, perhaps, the adoption of a more rigorous daily routine. Unemployment benefits sanctions cause a short-run deterioration of mental health, possibly due higher stress levels, but this tapers out quickly.}, language = {en} } @techreport{BlockKritikosPriemetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Block, J{\"o}rn and Kritikos, Alexander and Priem, Maximilian and Stiel, Caroline}, title = {Emergency-Aid for Self-employed in the Covid-19 Pandemic}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {55}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56268}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562688}, pages = {41}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The self-employed faced strong income losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many governments introduced programs to financially support the self-employed during the pandemic, including Germany. The German Ministry for Economic Affairs announced a €50bn emergency-aid program in March 2020, offering one-off lump-sum payments of up to €15,000 to those facing substantial revenue declines. By reassuring the self- employed that the government 'would not let them down' during the crisis, the program had also the important aim of motivating the self-employed to get through the crisis. We investigate whether the program affected the confidence of the self-employed to survive the crisis using real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations. We employ propensity score matching, making use of a rich set of variables that influence the subjective survival probability as main outcome measure. We observe that this program had significant effects, with the subjective survival probability of the self- employed being moderately increased. We reveal important effect heterogeneities with respect to education, industries, and speed of payment. Notably, positive effects only occur among those self-employed whose application was processed quickly. This suggests stress-induced waiting costs due to the uncertainty associated with the administrative processing and the overall pandemic situation. Our findings have policy implications for the design of support programs, while also contributing to the literature on the instruments and effects of entrepreneurship policy interventions in crisis situations.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoTuebbicke2021, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and T{\"u}bbicke, Stefan}, title = {Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {30}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-50005}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-500056}, pages = {20}, year = {2021}, abstract = {While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened case-workers' discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program's effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants' observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support in-creased the program's impacts while reducing the cost per participant.}, language = {en} }