Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223392 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IMK Working Paper No. 203
Publisher: 
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Institut für Makroökonomie und Konjunkturforschung (IMK), Düsseldorf
Abstract: 
This paper studies the relationship between inequalities in working hours and overall earnings inequality in Germany between 2006 and 2014, and the role of declining collective bargaining coverage. Using data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey (GSES), a variance decomposition of earnings inequality reveals that hours inequality and the covariance between wages and hours become more important over time in determining earnings inequality. Based on unconditional quantile regressions, we show that the presence of collective agreements tends to increase working hours at the bottom of the distribution, and lowers them at the top end of the distribution, while controlling for individual and firm-specific characteristics. These findings imply that union presence is not only able to compress wage inequality, but might reduce earnings inequality through a compression of working hours.
Subjects: 
inequality
working hours
collective bargaining
decomposition
unconditional quantile regression
RIF regressions
Structure of Earnings Survey
JEL: 
J22
J31
J52
C31
D31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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