Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/302665 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17148
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We investigate the wage assimilation of East Germans who migrated to West Germany after reunification (1990-1999). We compare their wage assimilation to that of ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Bloc countries and international immigrants to West Germany who arrived at the same time. The analysis uses administrative as well as survey data. The results suggest that East Germans faced significant initial earnings disadvantages in West Germany, even conditional on age and education. However, these disadvantages were smaller than those of international immigrants, supporting the beneficial role of cultural similarity. The earnings gap relative to West German natives narrowed over time for all immigrants. These findings are robust to controlling for potentially endogenous return migration and labor force participation. Controls for fixed effects reveal that positive assimilation for East German and international immigrants was concentrated among highly educated immigrants.
Subjects: 
cultural similarity
labor market integration
internal migration
earnings assimilation
migration
Germany
reunification
JEL: 
F15
J31
J61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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