P3

Project Team:Prof. Dr. Siegfried Berninghaus Professor at the University of Karlsruhe (TH)
Prof. Dr. Werner Güth Director Strategic Interaction Group at the Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems, Jena
Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Ramser Professor at the University of Konstanz
Dipl. Volkswirtin Sabrina Bleich Scientific Assistant at the University of Karlsruhe (TH)
Dipl.-Kaufmann Christian Paul, Scientific Assistant at the University of Karlsruhe (TH)

This project analyzes the flexibility of a labor markets in adjusting to cyclical and structural influences in theory and experiment. Demand on labor as well as on goods markets is characterized by strategic competition. The main part will be to analyze pricing of labor and its consequences for the output on an oligopolistic goods market with heterogenous goods being produced by qualified and unqualified labor. At first, qualification is assumed to be exogenous. A next step would be to endogenize it.

There are special restrictions that firms have to take into account: A qualified worker can replace an unqualified one, an unqualified worker can only work on his own level of training. Firms give incentives to workers like further training, different models of working hours or special bonuses. Here decisions of firms and workers are endogenous. The model shall also account for separation of ownership and control, the principal-agent-relationship.