The East German Wage Structure after Transition

Robert Orlowski and Regina Riphahn

No 73, Working Papers from Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE)

Abstract: We extend the literature on transition economies' wage structures by investigating the returns to tenure and experience. This study applies recent panel data and estimation approaches that control for hitherto neglected biases. We compare the life cycle structure of East and West German wages for fulltime employed men in the private sector. The patterns in the returns to seniority are similar for the two regional labor markets. The returns to experience lag behind in the East German labor market, even almost 20 years after unification with significant differences particularly for high skill workers. The results are robust when only individuals are considered who started their labor market career in the market economy. We expect that the different returns are related to the heterogeneity of work experience gathered in East versus West Germany.

Keywords: wage structure; life cycle earnings; returns to tenure; returns to experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2009-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

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https://bgpe.cms.rrze.uni-erlangen.de/files/2023/0 ... after-Transition.pdf First version, 2009 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The East German Wage Structure after Transition (2008)
Working Paper: The East German Wage Structure after Transition (2008)
Working Paper: The East German Wage Structure after Transition (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bav:wpaper:073_orlowski

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