This thesis consists of four essays that contribute to the empirical literature on the determinants of recent changes in the employment and wage structure in Germany. The first essay analyzes recent employment growth at the lower tail of the wage distribution and its relation to technological...

Education is a crucial determinant of labour market success. We investigate whether education is an appropriate means to cushion the negative consequences of job loss and study the role of age as a second major labour market factor. Using German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data for the years...

This paper investigates the effects of the deregulation of shop-opening hours legislation on retail employment in Germany. In 2006, the legislative competence was shifted from the federal to the state level, leading to a gradual deregulation of shop opening restrictions in most of Germany s...

This paper investigates the short- and medium-term effects of the deregulation of shopopening hours legislation on retail employment in Germany. In 2006, the legislative competence was shifted from the federal to the state level, leading to a gradual deregulation of shop opening restrictions in...

Distinguishing carefully between mobility across firms and across occupations, this study provides causal estimates of the wage effects of mobility among graduates from apprenticeship in Germany. Our instrumental variables approach exploits variation in regional labor market characteristics....