In order to reduce unemployment, it is often recommended that industry-level wage bargaining in Germany should be replaced by a more decentralized system. This paper provides a critical assessment of the current wage bargaining institutions and reexamines the case for a more decentralized...

Thema dieses Beitrags ist zum einen eine kritische Würdigung des Flächentarifvertrages (FTV) im Hinblick auf seine Regelungsdichte und zum anderen die theoretische Analyse eines Elements des Flexibilisierungspotentials des FTV, nämlich der Öffnungsklausel, unter Berücksichtigung der...

In order to reduce unemployment, it is often recommended that industry-level wage bargaining in Germany should be replaced by a more decentralized system. This paper provides a critical assessment of the current wage bargaining institutions and reexamines the case for a more decentralized...

This paper examines critically the system of industry-level wage bargaining in Germany. More specifically, it shows that the importance of industry-level wage bargaining declines in Germany and that one major reason for this development is the highly restrictive institutional framework. However,...