Christoph Zaborowski

Bio: Christoph Zaborowski is an academic researcher from University of Zurich. The author has contributed to research in topics: Debt & Creditor. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 18 citations.

Employment service: Public or private?

Abstract: This paper deals with the relative performance of private and public employment services. For this purpose, two behavioral models are developed which take into account that private and and public employment agents not only pursue different aims but also face different restrictions, in particular since a public employment agency lacks the right to reject applicants. While analysis of the necessary optimality conditions yields tentative conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of both types of employment service, empirically testable hypotheses result from the predicted responses to increases in unemployment and in the cost of service, respectively. These predicted behaviors are likely to be considered unfair by society, causing dissatisfaction with both private and public employment agencies.

Getting Out of Debt: Garnishment of Wage in Whose Interest?

Abstract: Garnishment of wage as a way for creditors to enforce payment by unwilling or insolvent debtors, while very common in Germany and Switzerland, is not very successful Based on a dynamic model of debtor behaviour, this paper explores two alternatives of reform One is to reduce the rate of garnishment, which at present amounts to 100 percent of the wage income exceeding a defined subsistence level, thus probably destroying incentives to work According to model simulations, reducing the rate of garnishment is likely to result in an increase of labour supply but a decrease of garnishment revenue per period Second, the introduction of a debt release as it exists in the United States would have an ambiguous effect on labour supply While providing debtors with a fresh start, it would result a partial loss for creditors A Pareto improvement thus does not seem to be possible When taxpayers as an involved third party are taken into account, however, a potential Pareto improvement appears attainable through debt release

Online Job Search and Matching Quality

Abstract: The Internet has fundamentally changed the way workers and firms are matched on the job market. Compared to newspapers and other traditional employment resources, online job boards presumably lead to better matches by providing a wider choice of job advertisements and more sophisticated methods for finding suitable vacancies. This study investigates the association of online job search and matching quality using individual-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). My results show that job changers who found their new job online are better matched than their counterparts who found their new job through newspapers, friends, job agencies, or other channels.

Coexistence of public and private job agencies: Screening with heterogeneous institutions

Abstract: In response to the analysis of bureaucracies and the finding of inherent inefficiencies, public choice theory argues for an increase in competition by contracting out government services and deregulation. The paper explores the effect of coexisting public and private employment services in a model with private information of the worker about her ability and unobservable effort choice. The employer's use of an efficient unemployment exchange and an efficient private agency may lead to optimal screening with first best contracts. This is due to the assumption that good types of workers lose more human capital than bad types in periods of unemployment or mismatch. In contrast to standard screening contracts, a bad type of worker earns an information rent if the employment exchange is inefficient, but the employer chooses not to use the private agency for good types.

Are Public or Private Providers of Employment Services More Effective? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Abstract: This paper compares the effectiveness of public and private providers of employment services. Reporting from a randomized field experiment conducted in Denmark we assess empirically the case for contracting out employment services for a well-defined group of highly educated job-seekers (unemployed holding a university degree). Our findings suggest, first, that private providers deliver more intense, employment-oriented, and earlier services. Second, public and private provision of employment services are equally effective regarding subsequent labour market outcomes. And third, the two competing service delivery systems appear to be equally costly from a public spending perspective.