JobKeeper is a short-time work subsidy implemented between March 2020 and March 2021 in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic to reinforce the resilience of the labour market. As a job retention (JR) program, JobKeeper supports businesses, protects jobs and employment relationships and secures income of Australian workers. Drawing on microeconomic and macroeconomic evaluations of the JR programs published in other countries in a pre-pandemic period, this paper studies how the generosity, responsiveness, governance and eligibility criteria of JobKeeper may shape its efficiency and equity. We show that expected benefits of JobKeeper may be limited by some negative economic effects of short-time work subsidies. Locking employees in their current position potentially crowds out more efficient matches on the labour market. These displacement effects may slow down economic recovery. As a wage subsidy, JobKeeper distorts the relative wage and employment prospects between eligible and non-eligible workers. These substitution effects can increase the dualization of the Australian labour market and institutionalise lay-offs inequities for workers holding a temporary visa. Finally, we argue that subsidies for part-time work also generate incentives for working time reorganisations that should be evaluated.

中文翻译：

---

JobKeeper：澳大利亚短期工作计划

JobKeeper 是一项短期工作补贴，于 2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 3 月期间在 COVID-19 大流行期间在澳大利亚实施，以增强劳动力市场的弹性。作为一项工作保留 (JR) 计划，JobKeeper 支持企业，保护工作和雇佣关系，并确保澳大利亚工人的收入。借鉴其他国家在大流行前时期发布的 JR 计划的微观经济和宏观经济评估，本文研究了 JobKeeper 的慷慨、响应、治理和资格标准如何影响其效率和公平性。我们表明，JobKeeper 的预期收益可能会受到短期工作补贴的一些负面经济影响的限制。将员工锁定在当前职位可能会排挤劳动力市场上更有效的匹配。这些置换效应可能会减缓经济复苏。作为工资补贴，JobKeeper 扭曲了符合条件和不符合条件的工人之间的相对工资和就业前景。这些替代效应可以增加澳大利亚劳动力市场的二元化，并使持有临时签证的工人的裁员不平等制度化。最后，我们认为，对兼职工作的补贴也会对应该评估的工作时间重组产生激励。