The paper concentrates on the question whether the low level of productivity in East Germany can be explained by deficits in the stock of human capital. It is shown that figures on formalʺ qualifications yield a too optimistic view on human capital endowments; in fact, the effective stock on...

This paper describes the practical implementation of hiring vouchers in Germany (Kiel Working Paper 1302 "Comparing the Effectiveness of Employment Subsidies" by Alessio Brown, Christian Merkl and Dennis Snower). According to our proposal employers receive vouchers for hiring longterm...

The paper analyzes the influence of minimum wages on firms' incentive to train their employees. We show that this influence rests on two countervailing effects: minimum wages (i) augment wage compression and thereby raise firms' incentives to train and (ii) reduce the profitability of employees,...

This paper sheds light on how changes in the organization of work lead to wage inequality. We present a theoretical model in which workers with a wider span of competence (higher level of multitasking) earn a wage premium. Since abilities and opportunities to expand the span of competence are...

The paper investigates the relationship between offshoring, wages, and the ease with which individuals' tasks can be offshored. Our analysis relates to recent theoretical contributions arguing that there is only a loose relationship between the suitability of a task for offshoring and the...