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The Importance of Two‐Sided Heterogeneity for the Cyclicality of Labour Market Dynamics
Author(s) -
Bachmann Ronald,
Bechara Peggy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the manchester school
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9957
pISSN - 1463-6786
DOI - 10.1111/manc.12269
Subject(s) - stylized fact , economics , unemployment , workforce , labour economics , german , business cycle , macroeconomics , archaeology , history , economic growth
Using administrative data on individual workers’ employment history and firms, we investigate the cyclicality of worker flows on the German labour market. Focusing on heterogeneities on both sides of the labour market, we find that small firms hire much more workers from unemployment than large firms, and that they do so at the very beginning of an economic expansion. Later on in the expansion, overall hirings more frequently result from direct job‐to‐job transitions to larger firms. Transitions from unemployment to employment at large firms are generally found to be more (pro‐)cyclical. However, this stylized fact disappears when the composition of the workforce is controlled for.