We analyse the convergence and heterogeneity of living standards between East and West Germany since unification. Based …, including retirees and the unemployed, of East and West Germany over the fifteen years for which data are available. Using a … highest negative income gap. This probably reflects out-migration from East Germany by the young and highly skilled. On the …

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real … west Germany. Excessively high wages coupled with investment incentives that made the cost of capital negative rank high …

an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of the introduction of a nationwide legal … and had no negative employment effects. The ineffectiveness of a minimum wage in Germany is mainly due to the existing …

formerly socialist (rather gender-equal) East Germany and the capitalist (rather gender-traditional) West Germany shaped … couples in West (but not East) Germany diminished the wife's labor market outcomes in order to avoid situations where she … would earn more than him. However, the significance of the male breadwinner prescription seems to decline in West Germany …

Italy and Germany have similar geographical differences in productivity - North more productive than South in Italy …; West more productive than East in Germany - but have adopted different models of wage bargaining. Italy sets wages based on … nationwide contracts that allow for limited local wage adjustments, while Germany has moved toward a more flexible system that …

In this paper we first document inequality trends in wages, hours worked, earnings, consumption, and wealth for Germany … from the last twenty years. We generally find that inequality was relatively stable in West Germany until the German …