Should-Read: Christian Odendahl: The Hartz Myth

Should-Read: Christian Odendahl: The Hartz Myth: “Germany’s labour market and welfare reforms of the early 2000s have gained an outsized importance over time… http://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/pbrief_german_labour_10.7.17.pdf

…For some, these reforms put an end to Germany’s social market economy and pushed millions into insecure, low wage jobs. For others, notably many international observers, these ‘Hartz reforms’ are one if not the main reason why Germany–formerly known as the ‘sick man of Europe’–is now Europe’s export powerhouse and strongest economy…. A sober look at the German reforms shows that their economic impact was modest. They targeted weaknesses in Germany’s labour market and benefits system… combined unemployment and social assistance into a single system, to help more people find jobs or retrain; curbed incentives to ‘retire early’ by preventing people from claiming generous unemployment
benefits… made job search, training and job centres more efficient, which helped to reduce unemployment… and provided more incentives to take up work, which increased temporary and marginal employment. There were fewer negative side effects than are commonly attributed to the reforms…. But the number of people in insecure jobs and at risk of poverty increased after the reforms. The effect on income inequality is ambiguous…