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Bargained Wages in Decentralized Wage-Setting Regimes

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Author Info
Wolf Dieter Heinbach ()

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Abstract

Collective wage agreements still play an important role in the German wage bargaining system. However, there is a critical debate in Germany whether collective agreements deliver the flexibility needed by firms to adjust to the needs of international competition and technological change. In recent years, the social partners in some industries have responded to this possible lack of flexibility by introducing so called opening clauses into their collective bargaining agreements. These allow firms to deviate from their collective agreement under certain conditions. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the prevalence of opening clauses in the German manufacturing sector and their impact on the wage structure. To provide a basis for the empirical analyses, a survey on the existence and intensity of opening clauses in central collective agreements has been conducted. Thereby, these sectoral data about opening clauses are exactly combined with those from the German Structure of Earnings Survey 1995 and 2001, a linked employer-employee dataset from German official statistics. The results show the number of collective bargaining agreements containing opening clauses increasing remarkably since 1991. Furthermore, the implementation of opening clauses into collective contracts creates significant effects on wages.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany in its series Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim with number 276/2005.

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Length: 24 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2006
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Handle: RePEc:hoh:hohdip:276

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Related research
Keywords: opening clauses; collective bargaining; wage structure;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Gerlach, Knut & Stephan, Gesine, 2005. "Wage distributions by wage-setting regime," IAB Discussion Paper 200509, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]. [Downloadable!]
  2. Wolfgang Franz & Friedhelm Pfeiffer, 2006. "Reasons for Wage Rigidity in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 2017, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Wolfgang Franz & Friedhelm Pfeiffer, 2006. "Reasons for Wage Rigidity in Germany," LABOUR, CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd, vol. 20(2), pages 255-284, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Nicolas Canry & Arnaud Lechevalier, 2006. "Wage share variations in France and Germany since 1970: what does really matter?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00140529_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  2. Wolf Dieter Heinbach & Stefanie Schröpfer, 2007. "Typisierung der Tarifvertragslandschaft. Eine Clusteranalyse der tarifvertraglichen Öffnungsklauseln," IAW Discussion Papers 28, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW). [Downloadable!]
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  3. Wolf Dieter Heinbach & Stefanie Schröpfer, 2007. "Typisierung der Tarifvertragslandschaft. Eine Clusteranalyse der tarifvertraglichen Öffnungsklauseln (Identifying Types of Flexible Bargaining Agreements Using Cluster Analysis)," Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim 286/2007, Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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