Info
Transformation pressure in the labour market: heterogeneity, adjustment processes, and lessons for economic policy
21. IWH/IAB Workshop on Labour Market Policy
Date:
5th and 6th October 2026
Location:
Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA)
Regensburger Strasse 104
D-90478 Nuremberg
Special issue of the workshop:
Selected papers from the workshop may be invited for submission for a planned Special Issue in the Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik). When registering to the workshop, authors are asked to indicate whether they are interested in submitting to the Special Issue at a later date. Submission for the Special Issue takes place separately until 31.12.2026 and is subject to the journal’s regular peer review process.
Topic:
The German economy is going through a period of profound transformation. Technological change, decarbonization and demographic developments are fundamentally changing labor markets – albeit not uniformly, but with significant differences between regions, sectors and groups of workers.
At the same time, structural change is not a new phenomenon. Past transformation processes provide important insights into how labor markets respond to disruptions and the role institutions and policy can play in managing these adaptation processes.
The workshop brings these perspectives together: the focus is on papers that analyze current transformation processes, examine their heterogeneous effects, and/or draw lessons from past transformations for today’s economic policy challenges.
The aim is to exchange up-to-date research that provides new insights into transformation processes and illuminates their economic policy implications.
In particular, contributions are welcome on the following aspects:
- Labor market effects of current transformation processes (e.g. technological, ecological)
- Heterogeneity of transformations across regions, industries, businesses or groups of employees
- Comparison of current and past transformation processes and economic policy lessons to be drawn from them
- Labor market adjustment processes, in particular mobility, transitions and skill requirements
- The role of institutions and labor market policies in structural change
- Evaluation of policies in the context of transformation
Contributions may be empirical or theoretical in nature. Particularly desirable are papers that formulate economic policy implications or make reference to overarching perspectives on transformation.
The workshop will also include a symposium with keynote speeches and a panel discussion where Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dauth, Prof. Dr. Steffen Müller, PD Dr. Mirko Titze and Prof. Dr. Gesine Stephan will discuss the lessons learned from past transformation processes.
Programme:
IAB-IWH-Workshop_Programm_FINAL.pdf
Scientific Committee:
Dr. Britta Matthes, IAB
Prof. Dr. Steffen Müller, IWH und Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
Dr. Boris Ivanov, IAB
Type of conference and fees:
The IWH/IAB Workshop is a face-to-face event. There are no meeting fees, but participants are expected to cover their own costs. The workshop is generally held in German, lectures in English are possible.
Kontakt:
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