This paper investigates whether the workforce in Brazil is geographically segmented by analyzing variation in workers' earnings. It finds that standard market explanatlons for regional wage disparities, such as variations in the cost of living or workforce quality, can explaln only a part of the...

This paper analyses the extent to which gender differences in human capital contribute to explaining the observable wage differential in favour of men and its reduction since the mid-eighties among West German full-time employees in the private sector. Based on a simple analytical framework, the...

We analyse the Polish wage and unemployment structure between 1992 and 1995 on the basis of the Polish Labour Force Survey. It is shown that within this period wage inequality has stabilised. Surprisingly, wage inequality is lower in the private than in the public sector. Our test results show...

We analyze wage discrimination against foreign male workers in Germany with respect to different nationality groups and focused on its interaction with occupational segregation. We found evidence of strong occupational segregation, which we mainly attribute to institutional factors but also to...

A popular argument for a federal minimum wage is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this assertion for Germany, a welfare state with a relative generous means-tested social minimum and high marginal tax rates. Our analysis is based on a microsimulation...

In view of rising wage and income inequality, the introduction of a legal minimum wage has recently become an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of a nationwide legal minimum wage of 7.50 € per hour on the basis of a microsimulation model which accounts...

This paper uncovers ongoing trends in idiosyncratic earnings volatility across generations by decomposing residual earnings auto-covariances into a permanent and a transitory component. We employ data on complete earnings life cycles for prime age men born 1935 through 1974 that covers earnings...