Labor markets are the most important mediator of German unification and wages are a central indicator of its progress. Starting from the observation that a wage differential between two workers can arise either because workers have different endowments of human capital characteristics or remuneration to these characteristics differ, we apply an Oaxaca-style decomposition to the post-unification waves of the GSOEP to analyze the extent and causes of the East-West German wage differential. We derive an empirical specification allowing us to assess directly whether (i) the initial wage disadvantage of East German workers is increasing in "age at unification" and (ii) subsequent wage growth is increasing in the time remaining in the labor force. Furthermore, we derive and estimate a measure of East-West wage convergence that accounts for both differences in human capital endowments and interference generated by the aging process.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Length: pages Date of creation: 01 May 1997 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:1997-105
Contact details of provider: Postal: 724 E. University Ave. Wyly Hall, Floor 1, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1234 Phone: 734 615 4566 Fax: (734) 763-5850 Email: Web page: http://www.wdi.umich.edu More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Patricia Loh).
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.)