IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2000-022.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure: Evidence and Interpretation

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Eswar S Prasad

Abstract

This paper uses micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to document that the wage structure in West Germany was remarkably stable during 1984-97, with little variation over time in wage or earnings inequality between and within different skill groups. Empirical evidence suggests that this stability is attributable to institutional factors rather than market forces. The rigidity of relative wages, despite relative shifts in labor demand that favor skilled workers, has resulted in sharp declines in employment rates for unskilled workers. The microeconomic evidence is shown to have important implications for interpreting trends in wage shares, capital-labor ratios, and aggregate unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Eswar S Prasad, 2000. "The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure: Evidence and Interpretation," IMF Working Papers 2000/022, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2000/022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=3424
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP; supply shock; wage inequality; Wage and earnings inequality; returns to human capital; labor market outcomes across skill groups; wage distribution; quantile regression; unskilled worker; net effect; skill price; labor market experience; wage regression; percentile differential; standard deviation; employment share; selection effect; Wages; Wage structure; Income inequality; Wage adjustments; Labor markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2000/022. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.