Frank Wießner

Ein zweiter Kreditmarkt für eine zweite Chance

Abstract Unregulated credit markets will not finance the majority of unemployed people when they aim to receive a loan for running their own business. In the US an optimal policy mix reduces the entry barriers so that the most promising selfemployment business plans are self-selected and financed via a secondary credit market. By this tool unemployed persons get a second chance which opens the possibility for self-employment. In Germany a similar approach is missing. The existing policy tools in the finance area are not designed to provide a second chance. 378 ß

Work sharing as an alternative to layoffs: Lessons from the German experience during the crisis: New Developments and Beyond

‘Work sharing’ is a labour market instrument devised to distribute a reduced volume of work to the same (or similar) number of workers over a diminished period of working time in order to avoid redundancies. This fascinating and timely study presents the concept and history of work sharing and explores the complexities and trade-offs involved in its use as both a strategy for preserving jobs and a policy for increasing employment.