Skill compression, wage differentials, and employment: Germany vs the US

被引:35
作者
Freeman, R [1 ]
Schettkat, R
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[2] Natl Bur Econ Res, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[3] Univ Utrecht, Dept Econ & Policy Studies, NL-3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands
来源
OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS-NEW SERIES | 2001年 / 53卷 / 03期
关键词
D O I
10.1093/oep/53.3.582
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 [经济学];
摘要
Germany's more compressed wage structure is widely viewed as the main cause of the German-US difference in employment and unemployment, but part of the compression is due to Germany having a narrower distribution of skills than the US. Even adjusted for skills, however, we find that Germany has a more compressed wage distribution than the US. But relatively little of the US-German employment difference can be attributed to the compressed wage distribution. We find that jobless Germans have nearly the same skills as employed Germans and look more like average Americans than like low skilled Americans, which runs counter to the wage compression hypothesis. Given these patterns, the pay and employment experience of low skilled Americans is a poor counterfactual for assessing how reductions in pay might affect jobless Germans.
引用
收藏
页码:582 / 603
页数:22
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