IZA Newsletter - April 2005

In this issue:

B. Chiswick

Immigration has become a significant public policy issue in all of the developed countries, as well as an important area of study for academic researchers. IZA Program Director Barry R. Chiswick (University of Illinois, Chicago) has been a pioneer in research on the economics of immigration and has published numerous seminal studies on the labor market, the educational and linguistic adjustment of immigrants, and their impact on the host economy. He has also written extensively on various aspects of immigration policy. "His contributions have marked the pace of research on migration for over two decades, provoking the right questions and guiding the field," said IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann.

[enlarge]

Now Chiswick's most influential and widely-cited papers, published over a span of 25 years in a variety of journals and conference volumes, are available in a single volume entitled "The Economics of Immigration". It contains a foreword by Nobel Laureate Gary S. Becker (University of Chicago and IZA) and an original introductory essay by the author. The collection is available from Edward Elgar Publishing [more information].

Chiswick, Barry R. (2005), The Economics of Immigration. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK. 424 pages.
ISBN 1-84376-458-X.

Hüther | Straubhaar | Zimmermann

On March 11, 2005, a reform proposal to stimulate economic growth and employment was put forward to German policymakers by IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann jointly with Michael Hüther, Director of the Cologne Institute for Business Research (IW Köln), and Thomas Straubhaar, President of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA). The proposal contains an immediate action program consisting of three components:

1. Lowering unemployment insurance contributions and abolishing the "solidarity surtax" while raising the value-added tax.
2. Extending the legal provisions for temporary employment contracts and considering (in the medium run) the replacement of layoff protection with severance pay schemes.
3. Reducing bureaucracy with regard to legal restrictions on the use of future technology and other regulations impeding employment (e.g. the planned anti-discrimination act).

Read the press statement and the full-text proposal (both only available in German).

J. Stiglitz

The nomination period for this year's IZA Prize in Labor Economics 2005 started on March 10. More than 500 IZA Research Fellows have the right to nominate candidates for the fourth IZA Prize. The prize-winner will be selected by a committee including Nobel Prize laureates George Akerlof (University of California, Berkeley) and Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) as well as CEPR President Richard Portes. Stiglitz replaces Gary Becker (University of Chicago), who had been on the committee for the previous three years. IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann and Research Director Armin Falk will again coordinate the selection process.

The annual prize is awarded for outstanding academic achievement in the field of labor economics. It is meant to stimulate research that tries to find answers to the important labor market policy questions of our time. Past prize-winners are Jacob Mincer, Orley Ashenfelter and Edward Lazear.

[more information on the IZA Prize]

In a study published by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, IZA analyzes different ways to reform the system of mandatory unemployment insurance. Possible alternatives to the current system, which provides too many disincentives, range from experience rating (where the employer contribution is based on firing behavior) to a wage insurance for the long-term unemployed (where government subsidies make low-paid jobs more attractive) and personal insurance accounts to promote individual initiative.

The study, authored under the direction of Hilmar Schneider, offers an integrated reform proposal for a redesigned unemployment insurance system. Its key element is the introduction of flexible premium options that would take into account reemployment prospects, private insurance plans, and risk aversion of the individual. Such a reform would cut the cost of unemployment insurance in half without giving up the desired balance between social solidarity and individual responsibility.

Schneider, Hilmar/Marcus Hagedorn/Ashok Kaul/Tim Mennel (2004), Reform der Arbeitslosenversicherung (Hrsg. von der Bertelsmann Stiftung). Gütersloh. ISBN 3-89204-736-7.

Operating as a non-profit limited liability company, IZA analyzes problems and potential developments in the labor market and related areas.

In conducting research on the labor market and its inherent structural changes, IZA combines economic theory and practice as a mediator between economists, politicians, and major players in the national economy. IZA research is both nationally and internationally oriented. Permanent employees and external economists, including more than 500 fellows and affiliates worldwide, cooperate on projects in all areas of labor economics and policy.

Professor Dr. Klaus F. Zimmermann, Director of IZA, holds a chair in economics at the University of Bonn. He is also Honorary Professor at the Free University of Berlin and President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).

• Editor: Mark Fallak, IZA, Bonn, Germany
• Postal address: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
• For correspondence, please use: newsletter@iza.org
• For more information, please visit our homepage at http:www.iza.org