Scientific talks at the winter seminar of the German section of the Regional Science Association (GfR)

The talk by Jan Cornelius Peters is a recent work with Annekatrin Niebuhr and Duncan Roth (both from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB)), which examines the extent to which the size of the regional labour market influences wage growth throughout individual employment biographies of German and foreign employees. It shows that individual wages grow more slowly in rural areas, where regional labour markets are typically smaller than in metropolitan areas and that this is about 50% related to the industries, occupations and companies in which work experience is gained in the different types of regions. Low-skilled foreigners benefit on average less than low-skilled Germans from the advantages that large labour markets offer in terms of gaining valuable work experience, as the activities performed differ between the two groups.

Link to the Working Paper: https://doi.org/10.48720/IAB.DP.2224

In his presentation, Damiaan Persyn raises the question of the extent to which statistical analyses are subject to bias when they are conducted at different levels of aggregation. He considers this question for the estimation of wage rigidities conducted at the national and regional level. Two types of bias are examined: Biases due to aggregation in the presence of a non-linear relationship on the one hand, and biases that occur when dynamically heterogeneous relationships are aggregated on the other. The results identify the latter as the main cause of biased estimates. When comparing the national with the regional level, these biases can amount to several 100%.

Link to the Working Paper: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106464/1/MPRA_paper_106345.pdf