Labour market developments in Germany can be separated into two major shocks: German reunification in the early 1990s, and the Hartz reforms in the early 2000s. In this paper it is argued that these two shocks divide the German wage bargaining system into the old labour market system, which is...

Als Resultat einer ausführlichen politischen Debatte im Anschluss an die Bundestagswahl 2013 wurde in Deutschland am 1. Januar 2015 ein neuer Mindestlohn eingeführt. Dieser Artikel analysiert, ob die Bekanntgabe seiner Einführung bereits die Beschäftigungserwartungen von Arbeitgebern im Jahr...

This paper investigates the degree of monopsony power of employers in different industries against the background of a statutory minimum wage introduction in Germany in January 2015. A semi-structural estimation approach is employed based on a dynamic model of monopsonistic competition. The...

Empirical studies on minimum wages are primarily concerned with employment while their effects on income inequality receive less attention. Yet, a popular argument for a federal minimum wage in Germany is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this...

On 1 January 2015 a new statutory minimum wage of € 8.50 per hour of work was introduced in Germany. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we estimate effects on worker-level outcomes of continuing employees. The results reveal a meaningful absolute increase in the affected workers' pay...

In this paper we analyze whether the introduction of the general minimum wage in Germany in 2015 had an effect on workers' self-rated health. To study this question, we use survey-data linked to administrative employment records and apply difference-in-difference regressions combined with...

Does the federal minimum wage in Germany introduced in 2015 improve the income situation of low income households and reduce in-work poverty? Previous literature on its distributional impact was either focused on earnings and hourly wages (e.g. Caliendo et al., 2017), or is based on ex-ante...

Das Ziel dieses Artikel besteht darin, den ordonomischen Ansatz durch eine Illustration vorzustellen. (a) Am aktuellen Beispiel der Einführung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns wird gezeigt, wie die Ordonomik ein Diskursversagen diagnostiziert, das zu einem Politikversagen geführt hat, welches in...

In Deutschland wurde die öffentliche Diskussion um die Einführung eines flächen-deckenden gesetzlichen Mindestlohns vor allem normativ geführt: als Gerechtigkeitsdebatte. Dabei gerieten wichtige Aspekte aus dem Blick. So kam es zu einem gravierenden Diskursversagen: Trotz sachverständiger...

In this paper I evaluate a labor market reform in Germany. In particular, I analyze whether the introduction of the general minimum wage in 2015 had an effect on self-rated health and labor market outcomes of individuals who were likely affected by the reform. I exploit the plausibly exogenous...