IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7611.html

Low Wage Services: Interpreting the US - German Difference

Author

Listed:
  • Richard B. Freeman
  • Ronald Schettkat

Abstract

Is the expansion of jobs in low-wage services in Europe restricted by high wages? With services now the main sector source of employment growth this question becomes crucial and we examine it through a detailed comparison of the role of low-wage services in the US and Germany. We find a clear low-wage service jobs deficit' in Germany but this is not due to excessively high German wages. Relative wages in low-wage sectors are extremely similar in the two countries. This is a striking finding given the much wider wage distribution in the US. The explanation for this phenomenon is the much greater intra-industry wage dispersion in the US producing similar industry mean wages as the much narrower German distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard B. Freeman & Ronald Schettkat, 2000. "Low Wage Services: Interpreting the US - German Difference," NBER Working Papers 7611, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7611
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w7611.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siebert, Horst, 1997. "Labor market rigidities and unemployment in Europe," Kiel Working Papers 787, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    2. Oecd, 1998. "Key Employment Policy Challenges Faced by OECD Countries," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    3. Horst Siebert, 1997. "Labor Market Rigidities: At the Root of Unemployment in Europe," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 37-54, Summer.
    4. Linda Bell & Richard Freeman, 1994. "Why Do Americans and Germans Work Different Hours?," NBER Working Papers 4808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kemmerling, Achim, 2002. "The employment effects of different regimes of welfare state taxation: An empirical analysis of core OECD countries," MPIfG Discussion Paper 02/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Norbert Berthold, 2001. "Das Bündnis für Arbeit – Ein Weg aus der institutionellen Verflechtungsfalle?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 2(4), pages 383-406, November.
    3. Alois Guger & Thomas Leoni, 2006. "Teilstudie 15: Arbeitsmarktflexibilität und soziale Absicherung," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 27454.
    4. Kenworthy, Lane, 2002. "Do affluent countries face an income-jobs tradeoff?," MPIfG Discussion Paper 01/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Snower, Dennis J., 2006. "Minimum wages and firm training," Kiel Working Papers 1298, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    6. Carsten Ochsen, 2006. "Zukunft der Arbeit und Arbeit der Zukunft in Deutschland," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(2), pages 173-193, May.
    7. Messina, Julian, 2006. "The role of product market regulations in the process of structural change," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1863-1890, October.
    8. Richard B. Freeman & Ronald Schettkat, 2000. "The Role of Wage and Skill Differences in US-German Employment Differences," NBER Working Papers 7474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Snower, Dennis J., 2008. "Minimum wages and training," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1223-1237, December.
    10. Fagan, Colette & O'Reilly, Jacqueline & Halpin, Brendan, 2005. "Job opportunities for whom? Labour market dynamics and service sector employment growth in Germany and Britain," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2005-110, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    11. Marcel Erlinghagen, 2006. "Job Stability, Mobility and Labour Market Restructuring. Evidence from German Microdata," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 17(4), pages 372-394.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schimmelpfennig, Axel, 1998. "The celtic tiger faces the factor price frontier: Labour market adjustment in Ireland," Kiel Working Papers 855, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    2. Kemmerling, Achim & Bruttel, Oliver, 2005. "New politics in German labour market policy? The implications of the recent Hartz reforms for the German welfare state," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2005-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Laurence M. Ball, 2009. "Hysteresis in Unemployment: Old and New Evidence," NBER Working Papers 14818, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Horst Feldmann, 2013. "Technological unemployment in industrial countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1099-1126, November.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6761 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Magnus Henrekson & Jesper Roine, 2007. "Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Welfare State," Chapters, in: David B. Audretsch & Isabel Grilo & A. Roy Thurik (ed.), Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship Policy, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Puhani, Patrick A., 2001. "Wage rigidities in Western Germany? Microeconometric evidence from the 1990s," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-36, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Laurence Ball & Nicolás Roux & Marc Hofstetter, 2013. "Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 397-424, July.
    9. Hörnig, Lukas, 2023. "Regional employment effects of the Hartz-reforms," Ruhr Economic Papers 1033, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    10. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/6761 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Neffke, Frank M.H. & Otto, Anne & Weyh, Antje, 2017. "Inter-industry labor flows," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 275-292.
    12. Givord, Pauline & Maurin, Eric, 2004. "Changes in job security and their causes: An empirical analysis for France, 1982-2002," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 595-615, June.
    13. Hübler, Olaf & Meyer, Wolfgang, 2000. "Industrial Relations and the Wage Differentials between Skilled and Unskilled Blue-Collar Workers within Establishments: An Empirical Analysis with Data of Manufacturing Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 176, IZA Network @ LISER.
    14. Amable, Bruno & Gatti, Donatella, 2001. "The Impact of Product Market Competition on Employment and Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 276, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2013. "European economic governance: the Berlin–Washington Consensus," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(3), pages 479-496.
    16. Bozani, Vasiliki & Drydakis, Nick, 2011. "Studying the NAIRU and its Implications," IZA Discussion Papers 6079, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Sonja Jovicic, 2015. "Wage Inequality, Skill Inequality, and Employment: Evidence from PIAAC," Schumpeter Discussion Papers SDP15007, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    18. Arnaud Dupuy & Daniel Fernandez-Kranz, 2011. "International differences in the family gap in pay: the role of labour market institutions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 413-438.
    19. Oliver Lorz & Frank Stähler, 2001. "Who is afraid of capital mobility? on taxation of labor income and the level of public services in an open economy," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 79-101, February.
    20. Alois Guger, 2007. "WIFO-Weißbuch: Arbeitsmarktflexibilität und soziale Absicherung," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 80(5), pages 469-481, May.
    21. Peter Pisár & Ján Huňady & Erika Ľapinová, 2018. "Work Flexibility in Developed Countries: Economic Context and Policy Implications," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2018(6), pages 684-703.
    22. Maximilian v. Ehrlich & Henry G. Overman, 2020. "Place-Based Policies and Spatial Disparities across European Cities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 128-149, Summer.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:7611. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.