Education and wage inequality in Germany. A review of the empirical literature.

Autor/inn/en	Ammermüller, Andreas; Weber, Andrea M.; Mühlenweg, Andrea Maria
Institution	Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung
Titel	Education and wage inequality in Germany. A review of the empirical literature. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Bildung und Einkommensungleichheit in Deutschland. Ein Überblick über empirische Forschungsergebnisse.
Quelle	Mannheim: ZEW (2003), 33 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	Discussion paper. Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (Mannheim). 2003,29
Beigaben	Illustrationen
Sprache	englisch; englische Zusammenfassung
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Datenerhebungstechnik; Empirische Forschung; Bildungsbeteiligung; Bildungsrendite; Bildungsökonomie; Bildungsabschluss; Messverfahren; Ungleichheit; Einkommen; Qualifikationsdefizit; Literaturbericht; Benachteiligtes Kind; Deutschland
Abstract	This paper reviews the empirical evidence on the link between education and wage inequality in Germany. Due to the positive relationship between education and wages, policy-makers think of education as an efficient instrument to reduce wage inequality, especially by improving the position of the least skilled. However, the possible channels of interaction between the level and spread of education and the wage distribution have hardly been investigated so far. Summarizing the existing literature leads to the conclusion that there is a relative stability in wage inequality in Germany, both between and within educational levels, as well as in the returns to education. Most changes occurred in East Germany, where the wage distribution widened in the years following reunification, particularly for women. The inequality in education has decreased, especially through the rise in the educational participation of children from disadvantaged social backgrounds. At the same time, the average educational attainment has risen, with a fall in the percentage of low educated and a rising proportion of highly educated individuals. Returns to education are found to be slightly decreasing along the conditional wage distribution, which suggests that an increase in the general level of educational attainment should benefit the low wage earners comparatively more. As no drastic changes occurred in the distributions of education and wages over the last decade, however, the relative importance of the effect of the distribution of education upon wage inequality is difficult to identify. Scope for further research includes an analysis of the link between education and wage inequality for different cohorts and for the most recent data. Moreover, evidence on the direct link between the distribution of wages and the distribution of education is scarce in Germany. In particular, studies relating the distribution and the development of cognitive skills, instead of formal schooling, to wages hardly exist. (DIPF/Orig.).
Erfasst von	DIPF \| Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt am Main
Update	2004_(CD)