Wage Distributions by Bargaining Regime: Linked Employer-Employee Data Evidence from Germany

Karsten Kohn and Alexander Lembcke

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Using linked employer-employee data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey 2001, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of the wage structure in three wage-setting regimes prevalent in the German system of industrial relations. We analyze wage distributions for various labor market subgroups by means of kernel density estimation, variance decompositions, and individual and firm-level wage regressions. Unions' impact through collective and firm-level bargaining mainly works towards a higher wage level and reduced overall and residual wage dispersion. Yet observed effects are considerably heterogeneous across different labor market groups. There is no clear evidence for wage floors formed by collectively bargained low wage brackets which would operate as minimum wages for different groups of workers.

Keywords: Collective wage bargaining; wage structure; kernel density estimation; variance decomposition; wage equations; German Structure of Earnings Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J51 J52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Wage distributions by bargaining regime: linked employer-employee data evidence from Germany (2007)
Working Paper: Wage Distributions by Bargaining Regime: Linked Employer-Employee Data Evidence from Germany (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0813

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