A quarter of a century after Germany's reunification, Eastern Germans still earn substantially less than Western Germans. This paper revisits the German wage differential and isolates the effect of differing returns to human capital endowments, the possibility of a location effect, and human capital depreciation on the regional wage gap. While the endowment effect, location effect, and human capital depreciation jointly account for the wage differential between Easterners and Westerners living in the West, the same does not hold true for individuals settled in the East, where part of the wage gap remains unexplained.

中文翻译：

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德国东方人与西方人之间持续的薪酬差距：重新统一后的四分之一世纪

德国统一后的四分之一个世纪，东德人的收入仍远低于西德人。本文重新审视了德国的工资差异，并分离了不同人力资本禀赋回报的影响、区位效应的可能性以及人力资本贬值对区域工资差距的影响。虽然禀赋效应、区位效应和人力资本贬值共同解释了居住在西方的东方人和西方人之间的工资差异，但对于定居在东方的个人而言，情况并非如此，其中部分工资差距仍未得到解释。