Comments for Germany Has Outperformed the U.S. Because of Work Sharing at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 6 out of 6 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:44:06 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19824 German model requires individuals to work part time and get some unemployment assistance. Here we allow 99 weeks of pure unemployment with no part time work requirement (on the books that is....apparently there is ample underground employment). Why would this German system be preferred in the U.S. by the marginal worker who is staying home? - pete Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:51:15 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19820 Please forgive me for this [i]non sequitur[/i], but I always enjoy Beat The Press's takedowns of David Brooks when he tries his hand at economic analysis. Today, at the Princeton Election Consortium, Sam Wang skewers poor Bobo for trying his hand at poll analysis and for putting some spin on the result, which includes an analysis that other readers here might find informative as well: [url]http://election.princeton.edu/2012/10/25/do-you-understand-polls-as-well-as-david-brooks/#more-7922[/url] - David Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:15:13 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19814 Germany covers medical, pension, disability and training costs nationally. We make individual companies cover much more of those costs. Benefits are largely per person, not per hour. Since those costs do not scale with hours worked, US employers have a powerful incentive to have a smaller number of employees working longer hours even if long hours lead to less efficient work. German employers are free to take advantage of slack to reduce hours; US employers are much better off reducing headcount. This structural difference is probably more important than recession related government programs. - Daniel Greenwood Thu, 25 Oct 2012 06:03:23 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19807 Is it really surprising that the take up rate is low? There is no direct incentive. Do we ask that corporations qualify for bidding on government contracts by adopting work sharing programs? Do the employers get any tax incentives for doing so? Put yourself in the position of an employer with one product line that suffers from competitors who have off-shored production as well as from recession diminished demand. Wouldn't you be better off by letting a large portion of your workforce go and hoping to rehire workers later after the recovery kicks in and demand increases. The picture you paint is one crony capitalism policies that benefit the 1% at the expense of the 99%. - Ron Alley Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:52:35 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19806 What? State budgets are flush? Am I not getting the sarcasm, or am I unaware of the facts? - tom Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:41:07 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/germany-has-outperformed-the-us-because-of-work-sharing#comment-19805 Rick Perry won't take the federal money because "Texans don't need no help," Bubba don't like socialism, and I forget the third "reason." - David Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:36:11 +0100