Determinants of regional employment dynamics

Abstract

"Over the last ten years, employment in the German regions has developed very heterogeneously, ranging from a decline of 37 percent in some places to an increase of 25 percent in others. Along with the differences between Eastern and western parts of Germany that still prevail, regional growth poles in the east as well as declining regions in the west have also developed. Since large regional disparities tend to be linked to socio-political risks, the question of how to explain the pronounced regional differences in employment dynamics is of major political relevance. This doctoral thesis deals with the regional differences in the demand for labour and focuses on the determinants of local employment change that are related to individual plants as well as to regional characteristics. Empirical analyses of regional employment dynamics include an econometric investigation of the job turnover as well as the influence of the local economic structure as measured by the degree of specialization, diversity, and competition. The third approach looks explicitly at the level of the individual plant and asks how important plant and regional characteristics are for plant-level labour demand. The overall results of the thesis highlight the complexity with which the plant and the regional characteristics affect regional employment dynamics. It furthermore becomes clear that both levels of analysis (plant-level and regional level) are tightly interwoven with each other. Consequently, a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of regional employment dynamics must comprise both the level of the single plant and the level of the region." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Fuchs, M. (2010): Determinanten regionaler Beschäftigungsentwicklung. (IAB-Bibliothek 326), Bielefeld: Bertelsmann, 171 p. DOI:10.3278/300722w