Wages and Employment Across Skill Groups

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This book explores empirically for West Germany whether a decline in the relative demand for less skilled workers resulted in increased unemployment. Using up-to-date econometric techniques, a balanced mixture between descriptive evidence and structural estimation is provided, and there are various findings in the book which require a modification of the conventional wisdom about labor market trends in West Germany. Overall wage dispersion has been increasing and wage growth has been higher for low-skilled and high-skilled workers compared to the medium skill group. A skill bias in labor demand trends is found and higher wage flexibility could have alleviated the dispersion in unemployment rates across skill groups. The main driving force appears to be technological progress, however, the evidence is also consistent with international trade causing a deterioration in the labor market position of low-skilled workers. With regard to wage bargaining, evidence for a short-run, but not for a long-run, moderation of wage demands is found in the presence of a negative labor demand shock.