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...

How important is information disclosure through patents for subsequent innovation? To answer this question, we examine the expansion of the USPTO Patent Library system after 1975. Before the Internet, patent libraries gave inventors access to patent documents. We find that after patent library...

Previous studies find that past unemployment reduces life satisfaction even after reemployment for non-monetary reasons (unemployment scarring). It is not clear, however, whether this scarring is only caused by employment-related factors, such as worsened working conditions, or increased future...

Early retirement options are usually targeted at employees at risk of not reaching their regular retirement age in employment. An important at‐risk group comprises employees who have worked in demanding jobs for many years. This group may be particularly negatively affected by the abolition of...

We evaluate the labor market and distributional effects of an increase in the early retirement age (ERA) from 60 to 63 for women. We use a regression discontinuity design which exploits the immediate increase in the ERA between women born in 1951 and 1952. The analysis is based on the German...

This paper shows that labor income plays an important positive role for the decision to work after retirement. Especially individuals who have the chance to substantially supplement their pension entitlements have a higher earnings elasticity. Men are more attracted by earnings incentives than...