The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure

The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure
Author: Eswar Prasad
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 70
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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The objective of this paper is to document the evolution of the German wage structure over the period 1984-97. The paper also investigates the roles of various factors that could have influenced patterns of changes in the wage structure. While a documentation of the evolution of the wage structure in Germany is interesting in its own right, the analysis in this paper, by facilitating comparisons with changes in the wage structures of other industrial countries, could potentially provide important clues to understanding the poor functioning of the German labor market in recent years. In particular, the analysis sheds light on the reasons behind and possible solutions for a particularly troubling problem, the high and rising rate of nonemployment among low-skilled workers.

The Labor Market and Economic Adjustment

The Labor Market and Economic Adjustment
Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 98
Release: 1995-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451854781

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This paper examines the role of the labor market in the transmission process of adjustment policies in developing countries. It begins by reviewing the recent evidence regarding the functioning of these markets. It then studies the implications of wage inertia, nominal contracts, labor market segmentation, and impediments to labor mobility for stabilization policies. The effect of labor market reforms on economic flexibility and the channels through which labor market imperfections alter the effects of structural adjustment measures are discussed next. The last part of the paper identifies a variety of issues that may require further investigation, such as the link between changes in relative wages and the distributional effects of adjustment policies.