Research

Sebastian Camarero Garcia and Michelle Hansch (forthcoming): The Effect of Unemployment Insurance Benefits on (Self-)Employment: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Journal of Human Resources (published ahead of print July 12, 2024). 

Abstract: Although active labor market policies often subsidize unemployed individuals to start their own businesses, little is known about the role of unemployment insurance (UI) generosity for self-employment. Exploiting the 2012 labor market reform in Spain which increased a discontinuity in the UI benefit schedule, we estimate the causal effect of lower UI generosity on the extensive margin of (self-)employment. We find heterogeneous effects: while the job-finding rate increases, the startup rate decreases. The reform’s unintended negative effect on self-employment (35-50%) outweighs the positive effect on re-employment (5-30%). The combined employment effect is smaller than analyses focusing only on re-employment suggest.

Presented at: International Institute of Public Finance Conference (IIPF), Virtual Iceland, August 2020; Joint World Conference of EALE, SOLE and AASLE, Virtual Berlin, June 2020; European Association of Young Economists, 25th Spring Meeting of Young Economists (SMYE), Virtual Bologna, June 2021.

Michelle Hansch (2025): Smoothing the Turmoil: Harmonization of the 1988 Occupation Codes over Time. FDZ Methodenreport 02/2025.

Abstract: This report addresses the challenges that the introduction of the 2010 occupational classification system poses for consistent analysis of employment biographies in Germany. The official transcoding scheme between the old classification of 1988 and the new classification of 2010 has so far been too imprecise, causing structural breaks in the evolution of occupation-specific employment shares. These structural breaks complicate research on employment biographies, potentially biasing results and restricting the analysis period. To tackle these issues, I propose an algorithm that harmonizes the 1988 occupation codes, based on the Sample of Integrated Labor Market Biographies (SIAB). It involves aggregating the 1988 occupations with diverging trends and reassigning specific 2010 occupation codes to more applicable 1988 occupations. The harmonization algorithm reduces the total employment share of the 1988 occupations with severe structural breaks from 34 to about one percent, allowing for a consistent analysis of employment biographies for over 30 years. 

Supplementary Material: Stata do-files.

Michelle Hansch, Jan Nimczik, and Alexandra Spitz-Oener (2025): Workplace Connections and Labor Migration.

Abstract: We examine how former coworkers influence migration decisions following major labor market shocks, using the quasi-experimental setting of German reunification. Displaced East German workers are more likely to move to West Germany if they have former coworkers from the German Democratic Republic already there. Migration is strategic: workers move when their labor market prospects align with those of their contacts already in theWest, and those contacts have positive labor market experiences. An extended Roy model rationalizes these findings, suggesting that migration is driven by relevant, job-specific information rather than social support from contacts.

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