This paper provides a detailed decomposition analysis of rising long-term earnings inequality among West German men born between the years 1955 and 1974 based on high-quality administrative data. Educational upgrading is identified as a leading factor behind increasing inequality in the upper part of the long-term earnings distribution. The study also reveals a substantial shift from full- to part-time employment and shows this to be an important factor in explaining rising inequality in the lower part. This effect seems to be quantitatively more important than the increasing incidence of non-employment for the studied cohorts. Overall, increasing inequality in long-term earnings can primarily be attributed to an increasing inequality in average yearly earnings during times of employment as opposed to changes in the total years of employment. The analysis also reveals similarities with the development in the US by documenting a stagnation in long-term earnings among the cohorts studied.

中文翻译：

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长期收入不平等加剧：教育升级和就业模式变化的故事

本文基于高质量的行政数据，对 1955 年至 1974 年间出生的西德男性之间日益严重的长期收入不平等进行了详细的分解分析。教育升级被认为是导致长期收入分配上层不平等加剧的一个主要因素。该研究还揭示了从全职就业到兼职就业的重大转变，并表明这是解释下层不平等加剧的一个重要因素。这种影响在数量上似乎比研究队列中不断增加的非就业率更重要。总体而言，长期收入不平等的加剧主要归因于就业期间平均年收入的不平等加剧，而不是总就业年限的变化。