Chapter 9

Germany

Germany has become the most important country in the euro area because of its large economy. The strength of the domestic economy has been made most visible over the past few years by the resilience of the labor market at a time when most other countries in the euro area and the U.S. faced the highest rates of unemployment in decades. The resilience of the labor market was due mainly to the stabilization policies engineered by the government of Angela Merkel during the financial crisis and structural reforms introduced by her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.

Labor Market

The Merkel government introduced a temporary work program called Kurzarbeit – meaning “short-term work” in German – during the financial crisis. Employers were ...

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