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On the Post-Unification Development of Public and Private Pay in Germany

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  • Heitmueller, Axel

    (Imperial College London)

  • Mavromaras, Kostas

    (University of Adelaide)

Abstract

German post-unification in the 1990s is a period that was marked by substantial economic change, part of which was East German wages building towards the much higher West German levels. This paper studies the public-private pay gap in the fast changing economic and political environment of the 1990s using panel estimation techniques which control for unobserved individual heterogeneity. It shows that, while the overall pay gap between public and private sector stayed remarkably constant in the West, earnings differences in the East increased threefold in the late 1990s resulting in a substantial wage premium in the public sector. It is suggested that this premium is a result of the politically induced gap between pay and actual productivity. Furthermore, results vary greatly by gender indicating significantly larger female earnings differentials. Several institutional and political arguments are presented to explain this phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Heitmueller, Axel & Mavromaras, Kostas, 2005. "On the Post-Unification Development of Public and Private Pay in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1696
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Michael C. Burda & Christoph M. Schmitd, 1997. "Getting Behind the East-West [German] Wage Differential: Theory and Evidence," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 105, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    7. Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Ransom, Michael R., 1994. "On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 5-21, March.
    8. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1993. "Public and private sector wages in the Netherlands," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 97-114, January.
    9. Wolfgang Franz & Viktor Steiner, 2000. "Wages in the East German Transition Process: Facts and Explanations," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(3), pages 241-269, August.
    10. Burda, M. & Schmidt, C., 1997. "Getting Behind The East-West Wage Differential: Theory and Evidence," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 1997,77, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    11. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 1995. "Staggering along: wages policy and investment support in East Germany," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(4), pages 403-426, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2008. "Public versus Private Sector Wage Gap in Egypt: Evidence from Quantile Regression on Panel Data," MPRA Paper 89540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Caponi, Vincenzo, 2017. "Public employment policies and regional unemployment differences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Orlowski, Robert & Riphahn, Regina T., 2008. "Seniority in Germany: New evidence on returns to tenure for male full-time workers," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(2/3), pages 139-155.
    4. Gabriele Cardullo, 2012. "Public Sector Wage Bargaining, Unemployment, and Inequality," DEP - series of economic working papers 2/2012, University of Genoa, Research Doctorate in Public Economics.
    5. Kostas Mavromaras & Stephane Mahuteau & Kostas Mavromaras & Sue Richardson & Rong Zhu, 2017. "Public–Private Sector Wage Differentials in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93, pages 105-121, June.
    6. Gabriela Grotkowska, 2016. "Regional variation in the public sector wage premium in Poland," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 46.
    7. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2020. "Public-private sector wage gap by gender in Egypt: Evidence from quantile regression on panel data, 1998–2018," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Gabriele Cardullo, 2017. "The Welfare and Employment Effects of Centralized Public Sector Wage Bargaining," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 490-510, April.
    9. Orlowski, Robert & Riphahn, Regina T., 2008. "Seniority in Germany: New evidence on returns to tenure for male full-time workers," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(2/3), pages 139-155.
    10. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2008. "Public versus Private Sector Wage Gap in Egypt: Evidence from Quantile Regression on Panel Data," MPRA Paper 89540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Orlowski, Robert & Riphahn, Regina T., 2008. "Seniority in Germany: New evidence on returns to tenure for male full-time workers," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(2/3), pages 139-155.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public-private sector pay differential; decomposition; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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