Abstract
AbstractThis study proposes a new measure of wage risk based on estimated probabilities to earn an hourly wage that is below some specific lower quantile of the wage distribution. Using the German SOEP as an information rich data base, we determine wage risks overall and for nine job categories during the period from 1992 until 2015. We find that the low-wage workers in Germany are worse off after the Hartz reforms. In Western Germany this evidence stems from both a reduction of low wages and an increase of wage risk. In Eastern Germany, it is largely due to increased wage risk. Moreover, overall evidence hides important developments at the occupational level.
Funder
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Generalitat de Catalunya
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
General Social Sciences,Sociology and Political Science,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),Developmental and Educational Psychology
Reference34 articles.
1. Abowd, J., Kramarz, F., & Margolis, D. (1999). High wage workers and high wage firms. Econometrica, 67(2), 251–333.
2. Acemoglu, D., & Autor, D. (2011). Skills, tasks and technologies: Implications for employment and earnings. In O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics, volume 4 of handbook of labor economics, chapter 12 (pp. 1043–1171). Elsevier.
3. Antonczyk, D., Leuschner, U., & Fitzenberger, B. (2009). Can a task-based approach explain the recent changes in the German wage structure? Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 229(2–3), 214–238.
4. Baker, M., & Solon, G. (2003). Earnings dynamics and inequality among Canadian men, 1976–1992: Evidence from longitudinal income tax records. Journal of Labor Economics, 21(2), 289–321.
5. Barth, E., Bryson, A., Davis, J. C., & Freeman, R. (2016). It’s where you work: Increases in the dispersion of earnings across establishments and individuals in the United States. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(S2), S67–S97.