We analyze the effect of the increase in trade exposure induced by the rise of China and the transformation of Eastern Europe on collective bargaining coverage of German plants in the period 1996-2008. We exploit cross-industry variation in trade exposure and use trade flows of other high-income...

Wage flexibility is often considered to be caused by the highly regulated labor market and the rigid system of labor law existing in Germany, especially in the field of wage determination. In this paper the impact of existing labor agreements on incentive systems in Germany is analyzed. It...

We analyze the dramatic decline of the employment share of unskilled labor in the West German economy, in particular its relation to the relatively rigid earnings structure. We find that the substitution elasticity between unskilled and skilled labor is rather low in most sectors of the economy....

This paper analyses the degree to which firms expect to be able to enter new markets, to develop new products and to contend with new foreign competition after the introduction of the Euro. Panel data taken from a quarterly business survey in the service sector are used for the empirical...

This paper discusses the relation between trade and competition, revising the literature and using indicators, build with Brazilian industrial survey (PIA/IBGE) and foreign trade (Comtrade) data. The premise is that the structure of domestic competition is explained by concentration indices,...