IMF Working Papers

Skills, Wages, and Employment in East and West Germany

By Michael Funke, Felix FitzRoy

January 1, 1995

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Format: Chicago

Michael Funke, and Felix FitzRoy. Skills, Wages, and Employment in East and West Germany, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 1995) accessed October 6, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Disaggregated data from 30 two-digit manufacturing industries in the east and west parts of unified Germany are used to estimate employment for three skill categories of blue collar workers. Employment elasticities are uniformly higher in the east, and for unskilled labor. The former result contradicts union claims that wages had little relevance for east German job losses, while the latter confirms the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis.

Subject: Employment, Labor, Labor demand, Real wages, Wage adjustments, Wages

Keywords: Eastern Europe, Egalitarian wage structure, Elasticities fall, Employment, Labor demand, Labor demand function, Long-run wage elasticity, Real wages, Wage adjustments, Wage cost, Wage demand, Wage development, Wage distribution, Wage elasticity, Wage push, Wage rate, Wage-employment elasticity, Wages, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    24

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 1995/004

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA0041995

  • ISBN:

    9781451841985

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941