IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imk/wpaper/203-2020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are working hours a new driver of inequality?

Author

Listed:
  • Stefanie Gerold
  • Ulrike Stein

    (Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK))

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between inequalities in working hours and overall earnings inequality in Germany between 2006 and 2014, and the role of declining collective bargaining coverage. Using data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey (GSES), a variance decomposition of earnings inequality reveals that hours inequality and the covariance between wages and hours become more important over time in determining earnings inequality. Based on unconditional quantile regressions, we show that the presence of collective agreements tends to increase working hours at the bottom of the distribution, and lowers them at the top end of the distribution, while controlling for individual and firm-specific characteristics. These findings imply that union presence is not only able to compress wage inequality, but might reduce earnings inequality through a compression of working hours.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefanie Gerold & Ulrike Stein, 2020. "Are working hours a new driver of inequality?," IMK Working Paper 203-2020, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:imk:wpaper:203-2020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_imk_wp_203_2020.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; working hours; collective bargaining; decomposition; unconditional quantile regression; RIF regressions; Structure of Earnings Survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:imk:wpaper:203-2020. 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: Sabine Nemitz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imkhbde.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.