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Veranstaltungsreihe: Workshops und Konferenzen (en)

Das IAB organisiert eigenständig oder in Zusammenarbeit mit externen Partnern nationale und internationale Konferenzen und Workshops zu aktuellen Fragestellungen in der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung. Die Tagungen richten sich vorwiegend an Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, je nach Veranstaltung aber auch an Interessierte aus Politik und Praxis.

The Covid crisis revived the interest in the topic of short-time work (sometimes also known as furlough schemes or work sharing). In many countries, the schemes were utilised in unprecendented ways. The Institute for Employment Research organises a one-day online workshop on May 13, 2022 that focuses on current research on short-time work. Contributions may address the Covid crisis or previous economic crises. Both theoretical and applied papers with both micro- and macroeconomic approaches are welcome.

The workshop provides the opportunity for timely exchange on cutting-edge research on a specific topic. Presentations and discussions should spur the debate on usage, effects and design of a crucial labour market instrument.

The vocational education system in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) is mainly school-based, with schools directly linked to large industrial conglomerates in communist times. Since the transition to a market economy it has been an uphill battle to connect vocational schools and newly emerging firms for workplace-based training. In particular, the region’s many small firms struggle to offer high-quality training, given the required investments and manpower. Yet, partly inspired by investors from German-speaking countries with their strong tradition of dual vocational education workplace-based training innovations have been evolving in increasing numbers in the region. What are the success stories so far and what are hurdles for rolling out dual educational training more systematically? What can players from different countries learn from each other?

The joined Graduate School (GradAB) of the IAB and the FAU invites young researchers who study topics in labor economics and sociology to its 13th interdisciplinary PhD workshop “Perspectives on (Un-) Employment”. The event provides an opportunity for graduate students to present their ongoing research and receive feedback from senior scholars who work at the forefront of labor market research. We seek theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of labor market research. Your paper may cover topics such as:

  • Unemployment, labor supply and labor demand
  • Inequality, poverty and discrimination
  • Evaluation of labor market institutions and policies
  • Wages and productivity
  • Occupations
  • Education, qualification and job tasks
  • Gender and family
  • Migration and international labor markets
  • Technological change and digitization
  • The impact of climate change/COVID-19 on the labor market
  • Methodology of labor market research

Student dropout from higher education constitutes a serious challenge: In recent years, almost 30 percent of students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programmes in Germany have left university without a degree. Moreover, dropout entails substantial costs. These include the costs of students’ (unsuccessful) stay in the higher education system as well as indirect costs due to the loss of tax and contribution payments these students would have made had they entered the labour market immediately after school. On an individual level, dropout entails a lower lifetime income as well as psychological costs, as dropouts have to cope with their academic “failure” and also need to realign the plans for their professional future. Therefore, understanding – and potentially avoiding – student dropout is a topic of high relevance, not only for researchers but also for policy makers and students themselves.

The conference aims to provide insights and different perspectives on the link between higher education and the labour market. It offers sessions with general contributions on the topic – as, for example, on returns to tertiary education, graduates’ placement on the labour market, or regional mobility of graduates – as well as sessions on this year’s focus topic, dropout from higher education.

In this framework, we are particularly interested in contributions on topics such as:

  • (Labour-market) perspectives of university dropouts.
  • Selectivity of dropout with respect to students’ social background.
  • Reasons for student dropout, with papers on the current Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts on dropout being particularly welcome.
  • Returns to alternative educational tracks (e.g., vocational education) vs. immediate entry into the labour market after dropout.
  • Potential measures to reduce dropout rates.

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is pleased to invite submissions for a workshop on “Vacancies, Hiring and Matching” in Nuremberg on October 1 and 2, 2019. In 2019, the IAB celebrates the 30th anniversary of the German Job Vacancy Survey, which has been collecting representative data
on vacancies and hiring processes since 1989. Given that the nature of employers’ vacancy posting
and hiring processes is an important, but still under-researched topic, the workshop’s objective is to
discuss recent developments in the following research areas:

  • Empirical research based on employer-level and/or vacancy data (also online vacancy data)
  • Macroeconomic work dealing with vacancies, labor market flows or the matching process
  • Other empirical studies on labor demand and the hiring of workers
  • Methodological work discussing employer-level data collection and/or the measurement of vacancies and labor flows

Different Paths – Different Outcomes? Changes in the Acquisition of the Higher Education Entrance Qualification and Educational Pathways of Graduates

Today, the majority of the 18-19 year olds acquires a higher education entrance qualification. While most of them do so by obtaining a general secondary school certificate (e.g., Abitur, Matura, Baccalauréat, A-Levels), alternative paths to acquiring a higher education entrance qualification might apply. Moreover, cooperative education programmes integrating vocational and tertiary education (“Duales Studium”), which provide an alternative path to university studies and vocational training, have become increasingly popular.

How these changes shape education and career paths of students/degree holders is the focus topic of this year’s 2nd Forum „Higher Education and the Labour Market“. Of particular interest are papers focusing on the education and career paths of the new (non-traditional) student groups or analysing (and ideally comparing) students following the different educational tracks (university studies, vocational training, cooperative education programmes). Contributions might, for example, cover topics like:

  • Who chooses (traditional) higher education programmes, who chooses vocational education, and who opts for cooperative education programmes? Are there systematic differences in students’ choices between these options, for example due to gender, academic or migration background, the type of entrance qualification, and/or individual competences?
  • What determines the choice of subjects in higher education or vocational training?
  • Does the type of higher education entrance qualification influence the success in vocational and higher education?
  • Are training and/or study decisions revised later on? And if so, when will this be the case, who will be most likely to revise her or his decision, are some decisions more likely to be revised than others, and which alternative paths are taken?
  • It is often argued that vocational and tertiary education convey different types of competencies (more specific vs. more general). How do these differences in competence endowments affect degree holders’ labour market chances?

In addition to the focus topic we are also interested in contributions that deal with the link between higher education and the labour market in general. Examples are papers focusing on topics like returns to education, overeducation among holders of tertiary degrees, labour market transitions of university drop-outs, graduates’ placement on the labour market – especially with regard to graduates with different types of degrees (e.g., B.A./M.A), or differences over time resulting from the increase in take-up of university studies.

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Labor and Socio-Economic Research Center (LASER) of the University of Erlangen Nuremberg are pleased to announce a workshop on field experiments in policy evaluation. Randomized experiments are the golden standard of causal analysis and have become an important tool in policy evaluations. However, conducting field experiments poses several methodical challenges like external validity, spillover effects, or dynamic selection. The two-day workshop seeks to bring together researchers focusing on policy evaluations using a field experimental design. Studies addressing one of the following fields are particularly welcome:

  • Labor economics
  • Economics of education
  • Health economics

The 4th Workshop on “Spatial Dimensions of the Labour Market” focuses on topics concerning regional labour markets. This year, a special focus is placed on the causes and consequences of agglomeration effects, and on local labour markets. The workshop aims to bring together frontier researchers from the areas of labour economics, regional economics, geography and other related fields. Theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented contributions are welcome.