The trap of unemployment, before and after the Hartz IV reform

Abstract

"The shortening of individual phases of unemployment was a central aim of the Hartz IV Reform. The article studies the duration of phases of unemployment before and after the Hartz IV Reform in a comparative manner. The basis of the data is the Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP). In a first step what is studied is the existence of an 'unemployment trap' in the overlapping area of social transfers and the labour market for the period from 2002 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2007. This analysis shows that the problem of extra-long phases of unemployment, which was the target of the Hartz IV Reform, hardly existed before 2005. In a second step of analysis, the study comes to the conclusion that the phases of unemployment hardly changed after the Hartz IV Reform. In the meantime, multivariate analyses with the help of the piecewise constant exponential model show that beneficiaries of means-tested unemployment benefit (ALG II) actually remained somewhat longer in unemployment than beneficiaries of social and unemployment benefit before Hartz IV when sociodemographic and economic effects were taken into account, while transition to employment had not changed significantly." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Fehr, S. & Vobruba, G. (2011): Die Arbeitslosigkeitsfalle vor und nach der Hartz-IV-Reform. In: WSI-Mitteilungen, Vol. 64, No. 5, p. 211-217. DOI:10.5771/0342-300X-2011-5-211