Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,0 (A), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Department of Economics), course: Labor Economics II, language: English, abstract: One of the most important issues that was in the center of the political debate in Germany in the last few months is the introduction of minimum wages. It was caused by the politically forced imposition of a minimum wage in the sector for postal services which, in the view of many experts, provides a competitive advantage for the major postal service company “Deutsche Post World Net”1 compared to its competitors. Then it happened that the “PIN – Group AG” one of the most important domestic competitors of the “Deutsche Post World Net” was threatened by insolvency as its largest shareholder the publisher “Axel Springer AG” was no longer willing to invest money in the “PIN - Group AG”. Additionally, many newspapers published by Axel Springer AG wrote articles against the imposition of a minimum wage for many weeks and published many interviews with economic experts warning about the negative effects of a minimum wage on the overall German labor market. Furthermore, political considerations, e.g. by the secretary of labor, to introduce a federal minimum wage in Germany even caused the chairmen of the eight leading economic research institutes in Germany to publish a letter in the newspaper “Das Handelsblatt”2 where they advise politicians against the introduction of a federal minimum wage if (large) employment losses should be avoided. On the other hand, a few other researchers, experts and politicians like the “IAB”3 as a specific labor market research institute believe that minimum wages even could create jobs and must not necessarily destroy them. This paper is motivated by this ongoing debate between economists and policymakers in the whole world. That is why in the first part of the paper the major theoretical framework which is used by economists to analyze and empirically assess the impacts of minimum wages on employment should be presented.

Abstract: There has been a long discussion about the employment impact of minimum wages and this discussion has recently been renewed with the introduction of an economy-wide, binding minimum wage in Germany in 2015. In traditional reasoning, based on the allocational approach of modern labour market economics, it has been suggested that the impact is clearly negative on the assumption of a competitive labour market and clearly positive on the assumption of a monopsonistic labour market. Unfortunately, both predictions conflict with the empirical findings, which do not show a clear-cut impact of significant size in any direction. As an alternative, a Post Keynesian two-sector model including an employment market is presented here. Its most likely prediction of a negligible employment effect and a sectoral shift is tested against the German case of an introduction of a statutory minimum wage in 2015. Despite substantial wage increases in the low wage sector, our empirical analysis reveals ver

This book examines the role of scientific expertise in minimum wage policy making in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It finds that scientific research is an important part of the public discourse on minimum wages in all three countries. Newspapers frequently cite scholars and research institutions, providing their readers with a good sense of how scientific research evaluates the effects of minimum wages. How often this happens depends on the context. Most importantly, newspapers from the United States cite researchers more frequently than newspapers from the two European countries. The book also shows that scientific research influences the policy preferences of political actors such as trade unions, political parties, and government agencies. The influence is based on policy-oriented learning. It is strong in Germany and the United Kingdom, and weaker in the United States. In both cases, cross-country differences are found to be related to different styles of using scientific expertise in the three countries.

Political parties, labor unions and several NGOs have demanded a statutory minimum wage for Germany since 2007. Due to this increasing pressure, the grand coalition have incorporated a national wage floor of EUR 8.50 in the coalition agreement, which will be binding from 2015 onwards. This development took place despite of massive resistance from many German and international economists whom repeatedly warned a MW would have a significant, negative impact on youth employment. Despite the warning, no studies or simulations have focused particularly on young persons in Germany and their employment prospects in the case of a statutory minimum wage so far. However, this development took place despite massive resistance of many German and international economists who repeatedly warn that a MW would have a large negative impact on youth employment. Nevertheless, so far no studies or simulations have focused particularly on young persons in Germany and their employment prospects in case of a statutory minimum wage. However, this development took place despite massive resistance of many German and international economists who repeatedly warn that a MW would have a large negative impact on youth employment. Nevertheless, so far no studies or simulations have focused particularly on young persons in Germany and their employment prospects in case of a statutory minimum wage.

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,7, SRH - Mobile University, language: English, abstract: The present paper aims at evaluating minimum wage laws. In order to reflect the topic, two countries – Germany and the United Kingdom –, which have already introduced minimum wages, are chosen as examples. Furthermore, the paper examines minimum wages from the perspective of two different economic theories on government intervention by introducing the neoclassical and the Keynesian approach. It investigates the observed actual impact and effectiveness of minimum wage legislation against the presented market theories as well as against the objectives and expectations raised by the legislation. Finally, the student paper gives a recommendation whether the introduction of minimum wages is actually worthwhile or not. The paper starts with a definition of the problem and introduces objectives as well as current relevance of the topic. Subsequently, the theoretical background is reflected. This includes the definition of the term minimum wage as well as presenting the neoclassical and the Keynesian economic theory. Chapter two finally ends with a short summary. Afterwards, the paper continues with Chapter three, which describes the minimum wage concepts of Germany and the United Kingdom. Therefore, the implementation track records explain the history, structure and the scope of the different minimum wage concepts. The critical discussion in chapter four finally evaluates the observed actual impact and effectiveness of minimum wages against the economic theories. Furthermore, it reflects the expectations and objectives which are raised by the government. The paper concludes with a summary and an outlook.

For some time, it has been debated whether a lack of wage flexibility is at the roots of the high and persistent unemployment in West Germany. In the presence of a skill bias in labor demand, which increases the relative de mand for more highly skilled labor over time, there only seems to exist the choice between higher wage inequality or higher unemployment rates. This study scrutinizes whether and in what way this line of thought is consis tent with empirical findings for West Germany. The analysis ranges from extensive descriptive evidence on wage trends to the estimation of a struc tural model of wage bargaining. As the most important database, I use the IAB-Beschiiftigtenstichprobe from 1975 to 1990. This study was accepted as a Habilitation thesis by the Department of Economics and Statistics of the University of Konstanz in October 1998. The only major change relates to appendix B on the block bootstrap procedure now summarizing the main aspects of the method. I am very grateful to my advisor Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Franz for his support, encouragement, and inspiration. From 1993 to 1997, he ran the Center for International Labor Economics at the University of Konstanz in such a way that it provided a fruitful environment for empirical research in labor economics. I am also indebted to Prof. Dr. Winfried Pohlmeier and to Prof. Dr. Gerd Ronning for undertaking the task to evaluate my Habilitation thesis.