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 …

The paper concentrates on the question whether the low level of productivity in East Germany can be explained by … human capital endowments; in fact, the effective stock on human capital in East Germany is lower than in West Germany when … younger cohorts. This impedes a fast convergence in productivity between East and West Germany. …