We use an extensive,matched employer-employee dataset to analyze the employer-size wage relation and its contribution to wage inequality in Germany. Applying models with additive fixed effects for workers and establishments, we document that the large firm wage premium, which has risen over 25...

Whether and how workers search on the job depends on their beliefs about pay and working conditions in other firms. Yet little is known about workers' knowledge of outside pay. We use a large-scale survey of full-time German workers, linked to their Social Security records, to elicit pay...

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the stepping-stone effect of temporary agency employment on unemployed workers. Using the timing-of-events approach, we not only investigate whether agency employment is a bridge into regular em-ployment but also analyze its effect on post-unemployment...

Kombilöhne sind staatliche Transferzahlungen an Arbeitnehmer, die an die Aufnahme einer abhängigen, sozialversicherungspflichtigen Beschäftigung unterhalb einer bestimmten Lohnhöhe gebunden sind. Ziel ist u.a. die dauerhafte Reintegration wettbewerbsschwacher Arbeitsloser in...

Increasing wage inequality is associated with changes in the degree of labor market sorting, i.e. the allocation of workers to firms. To measure sorting, we propose a new method which disentangles the respective contributions of worker and firm heterogeneity to wage inequality. Inspired by...

We use novel surveys of firms and workers, linked to administrative employer-employee data, to study the prevalence and importance of individual bargaining in wage determination. We show that simple survey questions accurately elicit firms' bargaining strategies. Using the elicited strategies...

Over the past three decades Germany has repeatedly deregulated the law on temporary agency work by stepwise increasing the maximum period for hiring-out employees and allowing temporary work agencies to conclude fixed-term contracts. These reforms should have had an effect on the employment...

There are two delineations of German labour market regions. On the one hand the 'Gemeinschaftsaufgabe Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur' uses labour market regions for business development programs. Their demarcation is based on 270 functional areas after a modification for the...

Funktionale Regionen, sogenannte regionale Arbeitsmärkte, spielen in der nationalen und internationalen Regionalforschung eine besondere Rolle. Im Gegensatz zu administrativen Regionen ermöglichen sie es, wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten und Pendlerverflechtungen in geeigneter Weise abzubilden....

Urban systems, and regions more generally, are the epicenters of many of today's social issues. Yet they are also the global drivers of technological innovation and thus it is critical that we understand their vulnerabilities and what makes them resilient to different types of shocks. We take...