Firm Productivity, Wages, and Sorting

We study the link between firm productivity and the wages that firms pay. Guided by a search-matching model with large firms, worker and firm heterogeneity, and production complementarities, we infer firm productivity by estimating firm-level production functions. Using German data, we find that the most productive firms do not pay the highest wages. Worker transitions from high- to medium-productivity firms are on average associated with wage gains. Productivity sorting-that is, the sorting of high-ability workers into high-productivity firms-is less pronounced than the sorting into high-wage firms.