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The Cost of Flexibility at the Margin. Comparing the Wage Penalty for Fixed‐term Contracts in Germany and Spain using Quantile Regression
Author(s) -
Mertens Antje,
Gash Vanessa,
McGinnity Frances
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
labour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1467-9914
pISSN - 1121-7081
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9914.2007.00396.x
Subject(s) - quantile regression , quantile , economics , wage , margin (machine learning) , term (time) , earnings , econometrics , flexibility (engineering) , distribution (mathematics) , fixed effects model , demographic economics , labour economics , panel data , mathematics , computer science , quantum mechanics , machine learning , mathematical analysis , accounting , management , physics
. Germany and Spain are typically regarded as ‘rigid’ economies, yet both have had different experiences of fixed‐term jobs. Using quantile regression we find that in West Germany the earnings of permanent and fixed‐term workers are most similar among high earners and most dissimilar among low earners. In Spain, the wage penalty shows little variation across the distribution of wages. This pattern was also found for different occupational groups, although there are clear differences in the absolute wage penalty across occupations. In conclusion we caution against generalizing findings from Spain to other ‘rigid’ European labour markets.