Rising wage inequality in the U.S. and Britain (especially in the 1980s) and rising continental European unemployment … (with rather stable wage inequality) have led to a popular view in the economics profession that these two phenomena are …

transitions between labor status or jobs, whereas for those at the top, earnings changes are mainly induced by wage rate growth …

This study provides empirical evidence for the economic rationality of wage rigidities. Theoretically wage rigidities … survey of 801 firms strong support has been found for explanations based on collective wage agreements and on efficency wages … as well. Collective wage agreements and implicit contracts are important reasons for wage rigidities for the low skilled …

Using linked employer–employee panel data for Germany, this paper investigates whether firms implement real wage … reductions in a selective manner. In line with insider–outsider and several strands of efficiency wage theory, we find strong … evidence for selective wage cuts with high-productivity workers being spared even when controlling for permanent differences in …

This paper investigates whether and in what sense the west German wage structure has been "rigid" in the 1990s. To test … the hypothesis that a rigid wage structure has been responsible for rising low-skilled unemployment, I propose a … stability of educational wage premia was justified by market forces. However, relative wages did not respond to negative net …

income in East Germany. The bias difference in labor market expectations explains part of the East-West German wage gap …