Seminar Series “Macroeconomics and Labor Markets” on 25 November 2025, LG 4.154
We are pleased to invite you to the seminar series on “Macroeconomics and Labor Markets“ organized by the Chair of Macroeconomics at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Prof. Merkl, the Chair of Global Governance and International Trade at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Prof. Moser, and the Competence Field Macroeconomics of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). Researchers of both institutions, as well as national and international guests, present their current work at the intersection of labor- and macroeconomics.
The next seminar will be held on Tuesday, November 25, 12 noon to 1.30 PM (German time).
It will take place in person at WISO in room LG 4.154 (Lange Gasse 20, Nürnberg).
Online participation will be possible via Zoom.
Cesar Barreto (OECD) will talk about “Left Behind? West-East German Disparities in the Cost of Job Loss“.
Abstract:
This paper studies regional disparities in the cost of job loss between West and East Germany. Based on German administrative data, I document that, relative to their pre-displacement level, earnings losses of displaced workers are on average lower in East Germany than in West Germany. A shift–share decomposition shows that roughly one-third of this West–East gap is due to differences in the industry mix of job destruction: after the early deindustrialization of the East, job losses there were less concentrated in manufacturing and more in construction than in the West. The remaining two thirds reflects smaller earnings losses in the East within industries, which are linked to lower firm wage premia among East German employers. Structural effects – the earnings losses associated with the same job lost across different regions – allow identifying an earnings penalty for displaced workers in the East that is more in line with the weaker labor market performance of the East. Although regional mobility to the West offsets earnings losses among movers, the vast majority of East Germans do not relocate to the West after job loss.