Understanding Changes in Gender Earnings Di¤erentials during Economic Transition: The East German Case
نویسنده
چکیده
Relative wages have changed dramatically after the collapse of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. Though the basic facts have been well documented, little is known about their underlying causes. This paper studies the determinants of the gender wage gap in East Germany and its evolution over time. In contrast to most other transition economies, wage di¤erentials between East German men and women have fallen during the 1990s. Preliminary results suggest that selective withdrawal from the labor force alone cannot explain this phenomenon. Women earn much lower returns to labor market skills accumulated after uni cation than men, which actually increases the gender wage gap. Current research explores the role of changing skill prices, job reallocation and institutional forces in explaining the dynamics of gender wage di¤erentials in East Germany over the 1990s. *Correspondence: [email protected], Stanford University, Landau Economics Building, Stanford, CA 94305-6015. Financial support from a Henry Morgenthau Fellowship is gratefully acknowledged. All errors are mine.
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