Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Labor mobility – Germany'

This study examines the dynamics of German Turks' practices and life-styles and their relationship with Turkey in the context of the possibilities brought into their lives by their particular type of dislocation. Turkish migrants' "culture" and life-styles are explored in the context of their complex social space, rather than within a framework encapsulated in a reified ethnicity and/or immutable "Turkish culture".
Chapter I discusses concepts of ethnicity, culture and identity and presents a critical account of the literature on German Turks in this respect. Chapter II focuses on the ambiguities and insecurities of German Turks' legal, political and social status in both Turkey and Germany, and traces the consequences of these conditions on Turkish migrants' complex sense of place. The discussion of German Turks' "myths of return" in the context of their liminality and the impact these have on their self-image and their visions about their lives constitute the focus of chapters III and IV respectively. Chapter V explores the changing nature of Turkish migrants' interpersonal relationships. Chapter VI concentrates on the anomalies of the social space occupied by German Turks in German society and discusses their life-styles, practices and emergent cultural forms in the context of social mobility.

Im Zeitraum 1989 bis 2005 sind per Saldo 1,6 Millionen Menschen aus den neuen in die alten Bundesländer gezogen. Die Mehrheit dieser Binnenwanderer war zwischen 18 und 29 Jahre alt und die Mehrheit war weiblich. Als Ergebnis dieser anhaltenden geschlechtsselektiven Wanderung ist in den neuen Bundesländern eine stark unausgewogene Geschlechterproportion in der Wohnbevölkerung entstanden. In der Altersgruppe der 18- bis 29-Jährigen lag die Geschlechterproportion in den neuen Bundesländern (einschließlich Berlin) im Jahr 2005 nur bei 90 Frauen zu 100 Männern und sank in zahlreichen Landkreisen auf Werte von weniger als 85 zu 100. Eine so unausgewogene Geschlechterproportion ist auch im europäischen Maßstab ungewöhnlich und kommt in keinem ähnlich großen und dicht besiedelten Gebiet vor. Als eine wesentliche Ursache der disproportionalen Wanderung wird ein erhebliches Bildungsgefälle zwischen jungen Frauen und Männern in den neuen Bundesländern identifiziert. Das hohe Bildungsniveau von Frauen ist dabei nicht nur als ökonomischer Faktor für den Fortzug zu sehen: Da Frauen Partnerschaften mit geringer gebildeten Partnern meiden, werden auch Paarbeziehungen mit westdeutschen Männern und damit das Verbleiben in Westdeutschland wahrscheinlicher. Als Ursache für die Auseinanderentwicklung des Bildungsniveaus von Frauen und Männern in den neuen Bundesländern sieht die Studie die Kollision eines Geschlechterarrangements, das seine Wurzeln in der DDR-Geschichte hat, mit den ökonomischen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen nach der Wiedervereinigung. Das Rollenbild von Frauen, gekennzeichnet durch hohe Wertschätzung ökonomischer Selbstständigkeit und Orientierung auf Tätigkeiten im qualifizierten Dienstleistungsbereich, erweist sich im wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Strukturwandel als prinzipiell anpassungsfähiger als jenes der Männer, deren klassische Tätigkeiten in Industrie und Handwerk eine tief greifende Entwertung erfahren haben.
Between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the year 2005, 1.6 million people have migrated from East Germany (the former German Democratic Republic – GDR) to West Germany. The majority of these migrants were female and between the ages of 18 and 29. This unbalanced migration has caused a disproportionate sex ratio in the East German population. The sex ratio (in the age group between 18 and 29) in 2005 was only 90 women per 100 men and in many remote counties the ratio was less than 85 to 100. In such a large and densely populated area this phenomenon is unique within Europe. This study identifies the development of a considerable discrepancy in educational levels between women and men in Eastern Germany as one important cause for the disproportionate sex ratio in migration. The higher educational level of women is not only an economic factor: Since women generally prefer partners with at least the same educational level, relationships between East German women and West German men has become much more likely than the opposite. As a cause for the discrepancy in educational levels the study highlights a clash between gender roles rooted in GDR history and structural changes that took place after German reunification. The role model of women – a high valuation of economic independence and orientation towards professions in the service sector – proves to be more adaptable to the economic and social changes in East Germany than the role model of men, whose classical vocations in industry and crafts experience a considerable devaluation.

Diese Dissertation umfasst drei Aufsätze, von denen sich die ersten beiden mit dem Phänomen der beruflichen Mobilität von Arbeitnehmern im westdeutschen Arbeitsmarkt befassen. Der erste Aufsatz untersucht für Absolventen einer dualen Berufsausbildung die kausalen Lohneffekte von Mobilität über Firmen und Berufe hinweg. Die Instrumentenvariablenschätzungen, welche exogene Variation in regionalen Arbeitsmarktcharakteristika ausnutzen, zeigen, dass Berufswechsel innerhalb des Ausbildungsbetriebs einen Karrierefortschritt darstellen. Bei Jobwechseln dominiert der Verlust von firmenspezifischem Humankapital. Allerdings nimmt der Lohnverlust nicht weiter zu, wenn zusätzlich zur Firma auch der Beruf gewechselt wird. Angesichts dieser Ergebnisse dokumentiert der zweite Aufsatz Muster von beruflicher Mobilität in Westdeutschland über den Zeitraum 1982--2008 innerhalb von und zwischen Firmen. Die Häufigkeit von beruflicher Mobilität hat seit 1982 zwischen Firmen signifikant zugenommen und innerhalb von Firmen signifikant abgenommen. Die Analyse betrachtet zudem mögliche Erklärungsansätze für diese Entwicklungen, wie zum Beispiel den demografischen Wandel oder den Zusammenhang zwischen beruflicher Mobilität und Arbeitslosigkeit. Der dritte Aufsatz untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Produktmarktderegulierung und Arbeitsmarktergebnissen. Die Reform der deutschen Handwerksordnung von 2003 wird als natürliches Experiment genutzt, um mögliche Einflüsse der Abschaffung von Markteintrittsbarrieren auf selbstständige und abhängige Beschäftigung zu untersuchen. Da Zweifel an der Gültigkeit der identifizierenden Annahmen aufkommen, können die Schätzergebnisse nicht kausal interpretiert werden. Dennoch legen die Ergebnisse zumindest in Teilen nahe, dass der in der Literatur bereits dokumentierte positive Effekt auf selbstständige Beschäftigung plausibel ist, wohingegen die Reform vermutlich keinen Anstieg der abhängigen Beschäftigung in den deregulierten Berufen zur Folge hatte.
This thesis comprises three essays, out of which the first two study the phenomenon of worker mobility across occupations in the West German labor market. The first essay studies the causal wage effects of mobility across firms and occupations among graduates from apprenticeship training. Exploiting variation in regional labor market characteristics the instrumental variables estimations indicate that occupation switches within the training firm involve a career progression. For job switches the loss of firm-specific human capital seems to dominate. However, the wage loss does not grow when an occupation switch occurs simultaneously. In light of these results, the second essay in this thesis studies patterns of occupational mobility in West Germany over the period 1982--2008 separately within and across firms. Most importantly, occupational mobility rates across firms have significantly increased since the early 1980s, while within-firm occupational mobility rates have significantly decreased. The essay also assesses potential explanations for these developments, such as demographic change or the relationship between occupational mobility and unemployment. The third essay in this thesis studies the relationship between product market deregulation and labor market outcomes. It exploits the 2003 reform of the German Crafts Code as a natural experiment to study how the abolishment of barriers to firm entry may affect self-employment and dependent employment. Since there are doubts regarding the validity of the identifying assumptions, the results cannot be interpreted causally. Nevertheless, the analysis at least partially corroborates the evidence for a positive reform effect on self-employment documented elsewhere in the literature, while the reform seems not to have had a positive effect on dependent employment in the deregulated crafts occupations.

The aim of my research is to study internal geographical mobility and its association with social mobility in a comparative perspective for selected countries in Europe, namely Italy, UK and Germany using longitudinal data. The first part of my thesis focuses on the selection process that takes place in the movements of the population. What are the characteristics of individuals who move? How are they different from the non-movers in terms of education, social origin, civil status? The second part will analyze how geographic mobility affects labour market outcomes. Are individuals who move more likely to have an upward occupational mobility? Since geographic mobility affects men and women differently, a dedicated section will focus on gender differences in these trajectories. To test the research hypothesis I use random-effect and fixed-effect probability models with panel data. The results show differences between the countries in term of selection processes and social mobility. The empirical results also confirm that women gain less from migration in terms of occupational outcomes compared to men.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Intensität zwischenbetrieblicher Mobilität von Hochqualifizierten für Deutschland auf regionaler Ebene und überprüft, welcher Wirkungszusammenhang mit regionaler Innovationsfähigkeit besteht. Zentral für die Entstehung von Innovationen werden Wissensspillover angesehen. Hochqualifizierten Arbeitskräften wird eine besondere Rolle zugeschrieben, Wissensspillover auszulösen. In der wissenschaftlichen Literatur wird für Regionen in den USA und den skandinavischen Raum auf den positiven Einfluss zwischenbetrieblicher Mobilität von Hochqualifizierten und der Innovationsentstehung verwiesen. Im Fokus dieser Arbeiten stehen zumeist Beschäftigte im IT-Bereich. Für Deutschland liegen bisher nur wenige Befunde vor. Dementsprechend wird in dieser Arbeit der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich die zwischenbetriebliche Mobilität von Hochqualifizierten räumlich darstellt und welche Auswirkungen regionale Unterschiede im Mobilitätsverhalten auf den Wissenstransfer und damit auf die Innovationsfähigkeit haben. Zur Klärung der Forschungsfrage wird ein Methodenmix angewandt. Auf Grundlage einer quantitativen Auswertung von Berufsbiographien und der Analyse des räumlichen Innovationsgeschehens wird deutlich, dass zwischenbetriebliche Mobilität in einem positiven Zusammenhang mit regionaler Innovationsaktivität steht. Die Befunde für deutsche Regionen bestätigen die Forschungsliteratur zur Wirkungsweise von zwischenbetrieblicher Mobilität auf die Innovationsentstehung. Die qualitative Auswertung von Interviews mit Experten aus Maschinenbaufirmen und regionalen Institutionen in vier deutschen Fallregionen zeigt jedoch, dass in diesem Bereich des produzierenden Sektors spezifische Barrieren existieren, die Einfluss darauf haben, dass Arbeitskräftemobilität nur bedingt zu Wissensspillovern führt. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass räumliche Unterschiede bei der Wahrnehmung von Arbeitskräftemobilität bestehen, die auf betriebsstrukturelle Merkmale zurückzuführen sind.
This work examines the intensity of inter-firm mobility of highly qualified employees at a local level in Germany and analyses the consequences of labour mobility for the creation of innovation. Knowledge spillovers are considered as a key element in the development of innovative products and processes. A special role in the knowledge transfer mechanism has been attributed to highly qualified employees. Scientific research has shown a positive influence of inter-firm mobility of highly qualified employees and innovation processes for various regions in the USA and Scandinavia. This applies in particular to employees in the IT sector. Concerning Germany one has gained only little insight in in this range of topics so far. Hence, this work addresses the question how the intensity of inter-firm mobility of highly qualified employees looks like at a local level in Germany and which consequences regional disparities of labour mobility have for knowledge spillover effects and thus for the creation of innovation. To tackle the research question, a method mix is applied in this paper. On the basis of quantitative research of nationwide professional biographies and the analysis of spatial innovation activities, it grows apparent that there exists a positive correlation between inter-firm mobility and regional innovation performance. The findings of this analysis of German regions confirm the mechanism between labour mobility and innovation activities in international research. Qualitative research in the form of interviews with experts from mechanical engineering companies and local institutions in four German regions has shown that there are special barriers in this field of the manufacturing sector, which limit the knowledge spillover of labour mobility. Moreover, one has shown spatial differences with regard to the perception of labour mobility, which, however, can be traced back to the structural characteristics of firms in the respective region.

Ein Viertel der britischen Beschäftigten und mehr als ein Fünftel der Beschäftigten in Deutschland arbeiten Teilzeit, mit steigender Tendenz in beiden Ländern. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Teilzeit als am weitesten verbreitete Form flexibler Beschäftigung und ihre Konsequenzen untersucht, um zu diskutieren, welche Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten hieraus für die Erwerbstätigen entstehen. Darüber hinaus werden die Konsequenzen für den regulierten deutschen und den flexiblen britischen Arbeitsmarkt kontrastiert. Befürworter der Arbeitsmarktflexibilisierung argumentieren, dass Teilzeit als Arbeitsmarktchance anzusehen ist, etwa für solche Beschäftigtengruppen wie Frauen, die bislang vom Normalarbeitsverhältnis, durch unbefristete Vollzeitbeschäftigung charakterisiert, ausgeschlossen waren (Inklusionsthese). Deshalb ist eine Egalisierung von weiblichen und männlichen Erwerbsverläufen zu erwarten. Im Gegensatz dazu argumentieren Gegner flexibler Beschäftigung, eine Ausweitung der Teilzeit bedroht gültige Beschäftigungsstandards und führt zu einer Zunahme sozialer Ungleichheit im segmentierten Arbeitsmarkt (Exklusionsthese). Ergebnisse auf der Basis des British Household Panel Survey 1991 bis 2001 und des Deutschen Sozio-ökonomischen Panel 1984 bis 1991 zeigen auf, dass Teilzeit großes Potenzial hat, Individuen in den Arbeitsmarkt zu integrieren, das bislang jedoch nicht vollständig genutzt wird. Besonders für Frauen entstehen Arbeitsmarktchancen durch Teilzeit. Allerdings sind Beschäftigte mit höheren Bildungsinvestitionen, wie nach der Humankapitaltheorie zu erwarten war, stärker an Vollzeitbeschäftigung interessiert, um ihre Einkommen zu maximieren. Außerdem sind Teilzeitbeschäftigungsverhältnisse von durchschnittlich geringerer Dauer und Teilzeitbeschäftigte weisen ein höheres (geringeres) Risiko auf, im Falle eines beruflichen Wechsels abzusteigen (aufzusteigen) als Vollzeitbeschäftigte. Zusammengenommen weisen diese Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die Ungleichheit zwischen den Geschlechtern auf dem Arbeitsmarkt zwar abnimmt, bedingt durch die Heterogenisierung sowohl der weiblichen als auch der männlichen Beschäftigten, jedoch ein Bedarf an attraktiven Teilzeitstellen auf dem Level qualifizierter Beschäftigung fortbesteht.
A quarter of British employees and more than one in five German employees are part-timers, with a rising tendency in both countries. In this study, part-time as the most widespread type of flexible employment and their consequences are investigated to discuss opportunities and problems emerging for individual employees. Additionally, these consequences are compared for the strongly regulated German and the highly flexible British labour market. Proponents of flexible employment state that part-time gives labour market opportunities to those groups such as women which have been formerly excluded from the standard employment relationship, characterised by permanent full-time contracts (Inclusion hypothesis). Therefore, an equalisation between male and female employees is expected. In contrast, opponents of flexible employment argue that an expansion of part-time threatens existing employment standards and produces higher social inequality in a segmented labour market (Exclusion hypothesis). Evidence based on the British Household Panel Survey from 1991 to 2001 and the German Socio-economic Panel from 1984 to 1991 shows that part-time employment has a huge potential to integrate individuals in the labour market which has not been fully used so far. Especially for women, employment opportunities emerge. However, employees with high investments in their human capital are more interested in full-time employment to maximise their income as expected according to the human capital theory. Moreover, part-time episodes are on average of shorter duration and part-timers have a higher (lower) risk to experience downward (upward) mobility than their full-time employed counterparts. These results suggest that while there is a decrease of gender inequality in the labour market due to the increasing heterogeneity of both, female and male employees, there is still a need for more attractive part-time positions on the level of skilled work.

This thesis studies the effects of import competition from China and Eastern Europe on the health and fertility decisions of German individuals working in manufacturing. Individuals are matched with separate measures of exposure to competition from China and Eastern Europe, respectively. To isolate exogenous supply shocks from the origin, instrumental variables for competition from each of China and Eastern Europe are constructed. Results in Chapter 1 suggest that higher import competition worsens individual health via job displacement, wage decline, shortened employment duration, increased reliance on welfare and less future orientation, with Chinese import competition affecting individuals twice as much. Health declines as individuals increase their visits to the doctor, exercise less frequently and have a higher probability of developing chronic illness. Also, there is some evidence that individuals do not tend to become disabled but may be slowly pushed into chronic illness. Findings in Chapter 2 show that import competition negatively affects the individual’s probability of having children via reduced earnings, lower satisfaction with personal income and shortened employment duration. The chapter then investigates effects of import exposure by gender. Results show that male and female fertility choices differ upon rising import competition. Higher import exposure lowers female earnings and job autonomy, which in turn generates a lower opportunity cost of work, to the point where having children would become a more rewarding alternative for female workers. By contrast, increased import exposure negatively affects male workers’ fertility through reduced earnings and employment duration.

Defence date: 21 June 2002
Examining Board: Prof. Bart Cockx, Université Catholique de Louvain ; Prof. Jennifer Hunt, University of Montreal ; Prof. Andrea Ichino, EUI, Supervisor ; Prof. Grayham Mizion (Supervisor), University of Southampton
First made available online on 21 May 2018

Levels of interregional migration in Germany are relatively low in international comparison and may contribute to lower overall employment levels, lower economic growth and persistent regional employment disparities. Increasing levels of geographic mobility may thus be a means of realising potential welfare gains and reducing regional employment disparities. Against this background, the willingness and ability of unemployed individuals to seek employment elsewhere is of central concern if geographic mobility is to contribute to higher overall employment levels and to an accelerated regional convergence. The effectiveness of migration as a means of realising these desirable goals, however, depends on the heterogeneous disincentive and incentives that shape individual mobility decisions. The major objective of this empirically and microeconometrically oriented dissertation thus is to shed light on the determinants of individual mobility decisions for heterogeneous groups of unemployed. In particular, the thesis examines whether different groups of unemployed jobseekers adjust their search strategies to local labour market conditions. Such responsiveness to local labour market conditions is desirable if migration is to contribute to a reduction of regional employment disparities. Empirical results indicate that only skilled and well-earning individuals respond to unfavourable local labour demand conditions by higher levels of migration. As a next step, the thesis thus examines to what extent institutional factors such as active and passive labour market policies are responsible for the immobility of certain labour market segments. While the empirical results point towards a limited mobility-reducing impact of the local supply of active labour market programs, several results throughout the theses indicate that the unemployment compensation, especially prolonged entitlements to unemployment benefits as well as higher income replacement rates, noticeably reduce mobility levels. Since low-skilled unemployed tend to have very high income replacement ratios, the relatively generous unemployment compensation system in Germany could be one explanation for the low mobility level and weak responsiveness to regional labour market conditions among low-skilled unemployed. This thesis thus reveals institutional barriers to mobility, especially for low-skilled unemployed, and hence identifies some scope for increasing geographic mobility and realising some of the aforementioned welfare gains. In addition to the potential welfare gains from raising interregional mobility in Germany, there are also a number of possible downsides. Besides a potential loss of social capital due to the interruption of social networks that are important for the informal organization of child care and the care for the elderly, costs to the society may arise from the necessity to adjust the public infrastructure in net in-migration and net out-migration regions to the changing level and composition of the local population. In addition, the negative selection of those remaining in depressed regions in terms of age and qualification may undermine the future growth potential of these regions, thus triggering a self-reinforcing decline. Higher levels of interregional mobility may thus have a divergent rather than a convergent impact on the regional system. Policies to realise the potential welfare gains from higher levels of interregional mobility should thus be complemented by compensating social and economic policies that aim at mitigating its possible negative consequences. As a contribution to such a comprehensive policy approach, a second objective of this thesis is to provide insights on how to cushion one particular downside of a higher level of geographic mobility, namely its potentially divergent effect on the regional system. This is of high relevance given the net migration of skilled individuals from eastern to western Germany which may reinforce the existing regional employment and wage disparities between both parts of Germany. The thesis thus aims at identifying the scope for counteracting the brain drain in eastern Germany by empirically examining the factors that determine the skill composition of migration flows in Germany. For this purpose, the study looks at destination choices of heterogeneous skill groups. The findings indicate that spatial job matching patterns by high-skilled individuals are mainly driven by interregional income differentials, while interregional job matches by less-skilled individuals are mainly affected by interregional differentials in job-finding opportunities. Economic policy could thus contribute to reducing the brain drain from eastern Germany without raising east-west migration among less-skilled by creating the conditions for an increasing skill premium and stable unemployment levels for less-skilled workers. Besides measures for raising eastern productivity levels, regionally tailored wage agreements which allow for regionally higher levels of wage dispersion, may thus be a promising policy direction. This dissertation thus contributes to designing a comprehensive policy approach that, one the one hand, aims at reducing institutional disincentives in order to raise geographic mobility and realise its potential welfare gains and that, at the same time, tries to cushion the possible downsides of a higher level of interregional mobility.

Defence date: 19 March 2001
Examining board: Prof. Samuel Bentolila, CEMFI, Madrid ; Prof. Richard Breen, EUI ; Prof. Andrea Ichino, EUI, Supervisor ; Prof. Juan Jimano, Universidad de Alcala de Henares ; Prof. Massimo Motta, EUI, Second advisor
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
From 1851 to 1954, under various names, the Indiana Cotton Mills was the dominant industry in the small town of Cannelton, Indiana, mostly employing women and children. The female industrial laborers who worked in this mill during the middle and end of the nineteenth century represent an important and overlooked component of midwestern workers. Women in Cannelton played an essential role in Indiana’s transition from small scale manufacturing in the 1850s to large scale industrialization at the turn of the century. In particular, this work will provide an in-depth exploration of female operatives’ primary place in Cannelton society, their essential economic contributions to their families, and the unique tactics they used in attempts to achieve better working conditions in the mill. It will also explain the small changes in women’s work experiences from 1854 to 1884, and how ultimately marriage, not industrial work, determined the course of their later lives.