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Some influential studies show that many self-employed could apparently achieve higher earnings were they working in paid employment. One potential explanation for this 'return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle', not empirically tested yet, is that entrepreneurship entails non-monetary benefits, such as autonomy, flexibility, and task variety. Using German data and a decomposition analysis, I examine the contribution of these working conditions to the observed earnings differential between self-employment and paid employment. I confirm that self-employed individuals report lower earnings than what they are expected to earn in paid employment. However, differences in working conditions barely contribute to the earnings gap. This finding casts some doubt on the relevance of compensating differentials for explaining the return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle.

This paper examines the effect of accumulated human capital, and particularly occupational human capital, on the earnings losses of displaced workers. Unlike most of the previous studies of job displacement, this paper uses a continuous measure of occupational skills transferability to measure the similarity between the pre- and post-displacement occupations of reemployed displaced workers. Using the 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 Displaced Worker Survey (DWS), the main finding is that post-displacement earnings losses are highly correlated with the degree of similarity between pre- and post-displacement occupations. Displaced workers who find jobs in occupations similar to their previous jobs suffer smaller earnings losses than those who find less similar jobs. This relationship is non-linear in that higher skills transferability reduces the earnings losses at a decreasing rate as the transferability of occupational skills increases.

"The problem of trying to estimate what the effect of the minimum wage will have on employment (or any other outcome) has puzzled economists for over 150 years. Some factions in Germany have recently contemplated supplementing their extensive system of sector and branch minimum wages with a National Minimum Wage (NMW). Perhaps some of the most valuable lessons for Germany can be drawn from the UK which introduced such a NMW as recently as 1999. This article provides an overview of recent evidence from the UK and other countries on the effects of the NMW and lessons to be drawn from instituting such a policy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Die Einfuhrung des Mindestlohns im deutschen Maler- und Lackiererhandwerk im Jahr 2003 wird als naturliches Experiment genutzt, um die Effekte von Mindestlohnen auf Lohne und Beschaftigung zu untersuchen. Wir finden einen signifikant positiven Effekt auf den durchschnittlichen Stundenlohn der gelernten Beschaftigten in Ostdeutschland, nicht aber in Westdeutschland und nicht fur ungelernte Arbeitskrafte. Dieser Befund entspricht der unterschiedlichen Eingriffsintensitat der Mindestlohne. Signifikant positive oder negative Beschaftigungseffekte werden nicht gefunden. Neuere Befragungsergebnisse deuten auf die fortbestehende Relevanz des Mindestlohns in Ostdeutschland hin.

We address the concerns about rising inequality in the German labour market after the implementation of the Hartz reforms between 2003 and 2005. We focus on the quality of new jobs started between 1998 and 2010 in West Germany in terms of job stability and level of earnings. Using social security data drawn from the Integrated Employment Biographies, we analyse the distributions of job durations and wages and model their determinants at the worker level. Our results show a high degree of job stability during and after the reform years, decreasing wage levels and increasing wage dispersion.

This paper overviews key findings concerning the evolution of job skill requirements in Britain, and their relationship to technology and work organisation, based on surveys dating from 1986. The use of skills has been rising, as indicated by several indicators covering multiple domains. Technological change is robustly implicated in these rises, but it is not possible to satisfactorily classify most tasks according to how easily they are encoded and thereby clearly link the changes to the nuanced theory of skill-biased technical change associated with asymmetric employment polarisation. Moreover, changing work organisation also contributes to explaining the rises, both in skills use and in skills development. Nevertheless, the extent of worker autonomy in the workplace declined notably during the 1990s; this decline is not accounted for by the data, but is thought to be associated with changing management culture. Changing skill requirements also affect pay. In addition to the education level both computing skills and influence skills attract a premium in the labour market. There is an increasing cost in terms of pay from overeducation and a rising prevalence of overeducation. Together, these changes are reflected in an increased dispersion of the graduate pay premium. While these findings have provided important contextual information for the development of skills policies, they have had little effect on engendering policies for stimulating improved job design.