Jak Niemcy obniżają koszty pracy? Efekty dystrybucyjne

Abstract

Purpose – Germany is successful in preserving cost advantage internationally while sustaining relatively high total labour costs. This proposal to explain the paradox does not rely on a purely economic analysis of wage costs but considers also non-wage costs which social security system implies but which can also be moderated by a systemic change. Research method – The analysis relies on separating economic sectors (part one) and on identifying particular parties within the social security system (part two). It aims at specific distributive effects. Results – The inter-sector and inter-regional inputs measured by wage costs explain how unit labour costs on average have been pressed down. Namely, competitive industries are able to stimulate their employees by rising wages, and to neutralize the wage-cost increases simultaneously by capturing inputs both from other sectors of national economy as well as from abroad. Accordingly, the „exposed” industries seem to be privileged by the policy of pension reforms which protect employers from continuous growth of non-wage costs shifting the burden of contribution to old-age security onto employees and state budget. Thus, the findings go further than Dustmann et al. who served as inspiration for this analysis of distributive effects. \nArticle received on 5 November 2019, accepted on 5 January 2020.