Home
I am a research economist at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) heading the research group "Firm Dynamics and Employment". Since June 2023, I am a member of the Department of Labour Market Processes and Institutions at the Institute for Employment Research in Nürnberg. My teaching portfolio includes causal data science and micro-econometric methods that I am teaching at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg and the IWH. I received my PhD from the University of Mannheim. Before joining IWH, I worked as a researcher at ZEW, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), and the German Council of Economic Experts.
Affiliations:
I am a Junior Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim and a Research Affiliate at the New Zealand Work Research Institute (NZWRI) at Auckland University of Technology.
During January to April 2022, I was visiting the University of Chicago as a Visiting Research Scholar.
Research Interests
Labor Economics, Public Economics, Applied Econometrics, Economics of Crime
New Working Paper
Committing to Grow: Privatizations and Firm Dynamics in East Germany, (joint with Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp and Nicolas Serrano-Velarde), NBER Working Paper 31645.
This paper investigates a unique policy designed to maintain employment during the privatization of East German firms after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The policy required new owners of the firms to commit to employment targets, with penalties for non-compliance. Using a dynamic model, we highlight three channels through which employment targets impact firms: distorted employment decisions, increased productivity, and higher exit rates. Our empirical analysis, using a novel dataset and instrumental variable approach, confirms these findings. We estimate a 22% points higher annual employment growth rate, a 14% points higher annual productivity growth, and a 3.6% points higher probability of exit for firms with binding employment targets. Our calibrated model further demonstrates that without these targets, aggregate employment would have been 15% lower after 10 years. Additionally, an alternative policy of productivity investment subsidies proved costly and less effective in the short term.
Contact Information
Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) - Member of the Leibniz Association
Kleine Märkerstraße 8
D-06108 Halle (Saale)
Germany
Phone: +49-(0)345-7753 873
Email: andre.diegmann@iwh-halle.de
