Abstract: We analyze the macroeconomic impact of the French work-sharing reform of 2000 (a reduction of standard working hours in combination with wage subsidies). Using a vector error correction model (VECM) for several labor market variables as well as inflation and output we produce out-of-sample forecasts for 2000/2001. A comparison of these forecasts --which serve as a benchmark simulation without structural shifts-- to the realized values (with shifts) suggests significant beneficial employment effects of the policy mix. Other shifts were absent and thus cannot explain the outcome. Output, productivity, hourly labor costs, and inflation are only transitorily affected or not at all

The German minimum wage was introduced in January 2015. This paper investigates the short-term macroeconomic impacts of its introduction. Therefore, an estimated VAR/VECM is used to perform forecasts that are interpreted as counterfactual to the introduction of the minimum wage and compared to actual developments of six key macroeconomic variables. The deviations are interpreted as minimum wage effects. Robustness checks as well as a comparison with descriptive empirical results are performed to assess the validity of the results. Overall, small positive price effects, significant positive wage effects, and positive employment effects although not robustly estimated in their magnitude are found.