Kristina Saveska (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Christian Merkl and Timo Sauerbier
This paper analyzes the interaction between financial constraints, short-time work, and labor market fluctuations. Using a survey panel that asks firms how long they can maintain operations with their current liquid resources, we document that financially-constrained firms are more likely to use short-time work in crisis times in Germany. We propose a search-and-matching model that allows for the coexistence of constrained and unconstrained firms and use it for quantitative macroeconomic analysis. The model is able to replicate key facts from the micro-data. In aggregate terms, financial frictions amplify labor market fluctuations substantially. However, labor market stabilization effects of short-time work are moderate. By contrast, direct payments to firms turn out to be a more powerful tool than a more active STW rule, as they relieve firms' liquidity constraints and thereby affect their labor adjustment.