Despite the apparent stability of the wage bargaining institutions in West Germany, aggregate union membership has been declining dramatically since the early 90's. However, aggregate gross membership numbers do not distinguish by employment status and it is impossible to disaggregate these...

This paper studies the relationship between wages and the degree of firm heterogeneity in a given industry under different wage setting structures. To derive testable hypotheses, we set up a theoretical model that analyses the sensitivity of wages to the variability in productivity conditions in...

An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that the level and the structure of unionization has become more and more similar in eastern and western Germany in the period 1992 to 2000. The originally high level of union density in eastern Germany has dropped below...

Die hohen Lohnabschlüsse der Tarif runde 1999 verdecken, daß sich die deutschen Gewerkschaften bereits seit Beginn der 90er Jahre in einer Krise befinden. Diese manifestiert sich in einem starken Rückgang der Mitgliedschaft sowie einer deutlichen Abnahme der Flächentarifvertragsbindung und...