This paper investigates whether and in what sense the west German wage structure has been 'rigid' in the 1990s. To test the hypothesis that a rigid wage structure has been responsible for rising low-skilled unemployment, I propose a methodology which makes less restrictive identifying...

This paper investigates the differences in the matching process of job seekers and vacancies to be filled between different educational and occupational groups. To investigate this issue, matching functions are estimated across different occupations and educational cohorts, that is, on an even...

This paper examines the extent of state dependence in individual unemployment and low paid employment and the inter-related dynamics between the two. Evidence is presented that (after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions) the low paid are more likely to become...