Task specialization and the native-foreign wage gap: Evidence from worker-level data

Arbeitspapier

Running RIF regressions to decompose wage differences along the distribution, this is the first study documenting that worker-level variation in tasks has played a key role in the widening of the German Native-Foreign Wage Gap. Comparing variation in Individual- vs Occupation-level task measures suggests idiosyncratic differences account for up to 34% of the explained wage gap. Importantly, natives specialize in high-paying interactive activities not only between but also within occupations. In contrast, foreign workers specialize in low-paying manual activities. This enhanced degree of task specialization accounts for 11% of the gap near the top of the distribution and 25% near the bottom, thus offering new insight into sources for imperfect substitution of native and foreign workers in the production function and consequently small migration-induced wage effects.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-3-96973-086-7
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Ruhr Economic Papers ; No. 928

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
• Subject: Wage Gap ; individual job task data ; RIF decomposition ; task specialization within occupations

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Storm, Eduard
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2021

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.4419/96973086
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/249304
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET