Arbeitspapier

Short-time work and unemployment in and after the Great Recession

Can governmental policies mitigate the effects of recessions on unemployment? We study whether the Swiss short-time work (STW) program reduced unemployment in the 2009-2015 period using quarterly establishment-level panel data linking several administrative data sources. We compare changes in permanent layoffs into unemployment, hiring from unemployment, establishment survival and size between establishments that applied successfully to establishments that applied unsuccessfully for STW at cantonal employment agencies. The latter appear to be a valid control group for the former among others because of substantial idiosyncrasies in cantonal approval practices. We find strong evidence that STW increases establishment survival and prevents rather than postpones dismissals: the 7,880 establishments treated in 2009 would have dismissed approximately 20,500 workers into unemployment (0.46% of the labor force) until 2012. Most workers would have been dismissed in the quarters immediately following application and more than a third would have become long-term unemployed. We estimate that the savings in terms of unemployment benefit payments may have been large enough to compensate the spending on STW benefits for the Swiss unemployment insurance.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: KOF Working Papers ; No. 462

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
Labor Demand
Labor Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
Thema
Great Recession
Labor demand
Layoffs
Labor hoarding
Short-timework
Unemployment
Work sharing

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Kopp, Daniel
Siegenthaler, Michael
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute
(wo)
Zurich
(wann)
2019

DOI
doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000359533
Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Kopp, Daniel
  • Siegenthaler, Michael
  • ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute

Entstanden

  • 2019

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