Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51717
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5708
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using a large administrative data set, this paper studies the evolution of the East German wage structure throughout the transition period 1992-2001. Wage dispersion has generally been rising. The increase occurred predominantly in the lower part of the wage distribution for women and in the upper part for men. Sectoral transition affected women to a much larger extent than men. A sequential decomposition analysis using quantile regressions reveals that changes in industry-specific remuneration schemes contributed strongly to the rise in wage inequality in the lower part of the distribution for female workers. On the other hand, inter-industry trends away from the manufacturing sector towards service sectors contribute to the smaller increase of inequality in the upper part of the distribution, while causing wage dispersion in the lower part of the distribution to decline. Changes in the industry composition alone would have led to a polarization of wages for female workers. For men, changes in individual characteristics and a general time trend contribute the largest part to the increasing wage dispersion. These gender differences result from employment segregation across industries right after German reunification, and a particularly strong concentration of females in the public sector.
Subjects: 
wage distribution
transition
gender
decomposition
quantile regression
polarization
East Germany
JEL: 
J31
C21
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
378.82 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.