Short-time allowances in times of crisis: A survey experiment

• Published in: Journal for labour market research Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
• Main Authors: Stephan, Gesine, Dütsch, Matthias, Osiander, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 13.12.2023; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: COVID-19; Deservingness theory; Economic crisis; Economic Policy; Economics; Economics and Finance; Employees; Employment; Experiments; Factorial survey; Human Resource Management; Labor Economics; Labor market; Layoffs; Original Article; Pandemics; Population Economics; Regional/Spatial Science; Short-time allowance; Short-time work; Sociology; Unemployment insurance; Wages & salaries; Working hours; COVID-19; Short-time work; Short-time allowance; Factorial survey; Deservingness theory; J68; J38
• ISSN: 2510-5027; 2510-5019; 2510-5027
• DOI: 10.1186/s12651-023-00358-3

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries used short-time work schemes, i.e., subsidies for temporary working hours reductions due to production drops. In Germany, regulations on entitlements and benefits have been much more generous during the pandemic than they were in noncrisis times. This paper conducts a factorial survey experiment among the workforce to investigate which amounts of short-time benefits and which associated replacement rates were perceived as appropriate during the pandemic. We interpret our findings in the context of the deservingness theory. Our results show that the assessments are partly consistent with the legal design features in Germany. One of our key findings is that, according to respondents, the short-time allowance should decrease slightly with an increasing duration of short-time work. In Germany, however, with the onset of the pandemic, a rule was temporarily implemented that step-wise increased short-time work benefits with the duration of short-time work.