Evolution of the East German wage structure

We analyze the evolution of the wage structure in East Germany over the past two decades and compare it to West Germany. Both regions experienced a rise in wage inequality between 1995 and 2009 with wage dispersion in East Germany exceeding West Germany, esp. at the top. We also show that wage inequ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Brüll, Eduard (Author) , Gathmann, Christina (Author)
Format: Book/Monograph Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Mannheim, Germany ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research 2020
Series:Discussion paper no. 20, 081 (12/2020)
In: Discussion paper (no. 20, 081 (12/2020))

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Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei: https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/58397
Verlag, kostenfrei: http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp20081.pdf
Verlag, kostenfrei: https://www.zew.de/publikationen/evolution-of-the-east-german-wage-structure
Resolving-System, kostenfrei: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/227744
Resolving-System: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-583975
Langzeitarchivierung Nationalbibliothek: https://d-nb.info/1226662420/34
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Author Notes:Eduard Brüll, Christina Gathmann
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Summary:We analyze the evolution of the wage structure in East Germany over the past two decades and compare it to West Germany. Both regions experienced a rise in wage inequality between 1995 and 2009 with wage dispersion in East Germany exceeding West Germany, esp. at the top. We also show that wage inequality is no longer rising in Germany and has even been declining in East Germany after 2009. Compositional changes of the workforce and selection along the employment margin play only a minor role as does the decline of union coverage for the rise in wage inequality. The adoption of minimum wages in selected industries, in contrast, explains all of the turnaround in East German wage inequality after 2009. Demand side changes seem to account for the rise in wage dispersion at the top.
Physical Description:Online Resource