Abstract
This paper evaluates the short-term labour market impact of the COVID-19 containment measures in Germany. By assessing the treatment effect on unemployment via difference-in-difference estimation, we find that 60% of the considerably increased inflows from employment into unemployment in April 2020 were due to the shutdown measures. Disentangling further, we find that the hiring margin accounted ...
Abstract
This paper evaluates the short-term labour market impact of the COVID-19 containment measures in Germany. By assessing the treatment effect on unemployment via difference-in-difference estimation, we find that 60% of the considerably increased inflows from employment into unemployment in April 2020 were due to the shutdown measures. Disentangling further, we find that the hiring margin accounted for additional 82% of the unemployment effect coming from the separations margin. In sum, the shutdown measures increased unemployment in the short run by 117,000 persons.
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