We comment on the work of Hanushek et al. (2015) and show that returns to skills are very heterogeneous and depend crucially on the tasks performed in the workplace, in line with the critique by Acemoglu and Autor (2011). Depending on the type of tasks performed at work, as well as on...

Our paper makes a first attempt to address the impact of skills and skill use in the analysis of the gender wage gap using the PIAAC dataset. Using the case of Austria, we show that skill use as well as the skill match play an important role with regard to wage regressions of men as well as...

Peacetime military service has both positive and negative effects on human capital. While it depreciates academic abilities it also enhances non-cognitive skills. The net effect of conscription is hard to identify due to issues of self-selection, endogenous timing and omitted variables bias. We...

Using matched employer-employee data for Britain, we examine ethnic wage differentials among full-time employees. We find substantial ethnic segregation across workplaces: around three-fifths of workplaces in Britain employ no ethnic minority workers. However, this workplace segregation does not...

This paper provides an overview of theory and empirical evidence on earnings discrimination within the workplace. Earnings discrimination occurs when employees producing work of equal value are differentially remunerated because of their social group. The paper reviews theories of why employers...

This paper analyzes wage differences between natives and immigrants in Austria. First, we show that for both groups, literacy skills are an important determinant of the hourly wage. In the second step, we show that differences in proficiency with respect to literacy can explain more than three...