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This paper uses insights from labour-market segmentation theory to investigate the wage differences between part-time and full-time workers in Germany at different parts of the wage distribution. This is accomplished with the use of a quintile regression and panel data from the SOEP (1991-2008). To get more insight on the part-time wage-gap, we apply a counterfactual wage decomposition analysis. The results show that, in the lower end of the wage distribution, part-time workers receive lower returns for their labour market characteristics, indicating the segmentation of the labour market. In contrast, at the top of the wage distribution, the part-time wage gap is fully explained by the difference in the characteristics of part-timers and full-timers.

This article uses insights from labour-market segmentation theory in order to investigate the wage differences between part-time and full-time workers in Germany at different parts of the wage distribution. This is accomplished with the use of a quintile regression and panel data from the German Socio Economic Panel (1991-2012). To obtain insights on the part-time wage differentials, we apply a counterfactual wage decomposition analysis. The results indicate the presence of a part-time wage penalty for involuntary part-time work at the low and middle parts of the wage distribution. In contrast, a wage premium for voluntary part-time work emerges, especially at the top of the distribution. Moreover, at the lower end of the wage distribution, part-time workers receive lower returns for their labour market characteristics, indicating the segmentation of the labour market. In contrast, the difference in the characteristics of part-timers and full-timers fully explains the part-time wage gap at the top of the wage distribution.

This paper contributes to the debate on the causes of unemployment in interwar Germany. It applies the Layard-Nickell model of the labour market to interwar Germany, using a new quarterly data set. The basic model is extended to capture the effects of the tariff wage under the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The estimated equations suggest that demand shocks, combined with nominal inertia in the labour market, were important in explaining unemployment. In addition real wage pressures due to the political processes of wage determination were a major influence on unemployment. Negative demand shocks appear to have been initially domestic and to have started before the impact of the World Depression. Both negative developments on the demand side of the economy and pressures coming from the supply side raised unemployment in the slump. In the recovery the wage policies of the Nazis and the revival of demand both contributed to the fall in unemployment. The mutual reinforcement of these factors may help to explain the severity of the interwar cycle in Germany. It also serves to emphasize the close connection between political and economic processes in this important episode in macroeconomic history.

In Germany, targeted wage subsidies to employers are an important instrument of active labor market policy. This paper compares the wages of individuals taking up a subsidized job with those of otherwise similar individuals who found an unsubsidized job, combining propensity score matching with a differences-in-differences strategy. The results indicate for the short-run that subsidized jobs are not associated with gains or losses regarding daily wages. Nonetheless, because subsequent employment rates of subsidized persons are higher on average, we find a positive relationship between cumulated wages and subsidization.

In Germany, there is a vivid political debate on introducing a general statutory minimum wage. In this paper, we study the effects of minimum wages on labor supply using a structural household model where we distinguish between married and single households. In the model, labor supply of married women reacts positively and relatively strongly to minimum wages which we model as a wage subsidy as proposed in the German political debate. By contrast, other population subgroups show ambiguous reactions. An empirical analysis for Germany shows that minimum wages would affect total labor supply only weakly. Yet, in our baseline experiments, average labor supply of married women increases by 3-5%, whereas hours supplied by married female recipients of the minimum wage may increase by up to 28%. Further, we find that costs of a subsidized minimum wage increase sharply in its level while its effects on labor supply level out.