最低工资对中国就业和工资水平的影响

本文以1998—2007年全国各市(地区、自治州、盟)最低工资标准随时间变化的外生差异来识别最低工资上涨与企业平均工资、企业雇佣人数的关系。利用1998—2007年规模以上制造业企业报表数据进行的分析显示,最低工资每上涨10%,制造业企业平均工资将整体上涨0.4%—0.5%。借助2006—2007年福建省最低工资上涨的"准自然实验"本文也证实了该结论。对于不同行业、不同人均资本水平的企业,最低工资上涨的影响也存在异质性。最低工资将更多地增加劳动密集型或人均资本较低企业的平均工资。研究还发现,最低工资每增加10%,制造业企业雇佣人数将显著减少0.6%左右。政府在制定最低工资时应权衡其在收入分配上的积极效果以及其对就业的负面影响。     

市场歧视对城镇地区性别工资差距的影响

本文使用基于分位数回归的反事实分析方法研究了中国城镇地区的性别工资差距问题,发现了以下三个结论:第一,性别工资差距在工资分布不同位置上存在不对称现象。从横截面数据来看,在工资分布顶端性别工资差距较小,在工资分布末端性别工资差距较大。从时序数据来看,在工资分布顶端性别工资差距越来越小,在工资分布末端性别工资差距越来越大。第二,性别工资差距在横截面数据上表现出不对称现象的原因是,女性在工资分布顶端受到的歧视程度低,在末端受到的歧视程度高。第三,性别工资差距在工资分布末端越来越大的原因是,女性受到的歧视程度越来越高;在工资分布顶端越来越小的原因是,男性和女性个人特征方面(如受教育水平)的差别越来越小。     

劳动工资理论的误区及其矫正

劳动要素所得过低是导致我国收入分配差距过大的重要因素.所谓劳动力成本低廉的竞争优势,在很大程度上是挤压了劳动者合理的生存工资、生活条件和最基本的社会保障而形成的.这是新古典经济学市场竞争决定收入分配从而决定雇佣环境带来的后果,走出这一误区就需要在认识这些理论缺陷的同时补上遗漏的工资理论信息,为改变劳动报酬偏低的收入分配格局提供理论支撑和政策导向.     

最低工资标准与劳动者待遇:统一抑或排斥

最低工资制度的存废至今仍处于争议之中,我国中央政府、地方政府与企业三者的目标函数不同,最低工资标准陷于标准过低的权宜困境,其调整并没有真正惠及劳动者,因此要求重新定位我国的最低工资制度:明确最低工资制度的社会保障制度归属,政府应该承担最低工资保障职能,同时建立以工资正常增长机制为主和最低工资保障机制为辅的工资制度,以及积极探索制定其他公共政策来保护社会弱势群体。     

中国城市劳动力市场上的性别工资差异

本文描述了中国城市劳动力市场上男女在行业获得和工资上的差异,并且用计量方法对工资差异进行了分解。分解结果表明,男女工资差异主要由同类行业内工资差异引起,而由于两者行业分布不同而带来的工资差异不大;歧视是造成性别之间的工资差异的主要原因,人力资本所起的作用很小。由此,缩小行业内的工资差异,消除对女性的歧视,是缩小工资性别差异的重要途径。     

Wage Indexation, Employment and Inflation

Price versus productivity-indexing is considered in a model of monetary policy with incomplete information and wage bargaining. In a perfectly price-indexed economy, the inflationary bias due to lack of credibility is eliminated. However, productivity-indexing is more appropriate to dampen macroeconomic fluctuations that are caused by real disturbances. We show that productivity-indexing alone guarantees both price and employment stability, provided the government's reputation is good enough and the union's bargaining power is not too strong. This reduces the degree of price indexation as the union becomes weaker and the government's reputation improves. Productivity-indexing is desirable with volatile productivity processes and weak unions.
JEL classification : E 24; E 52     

A Note on Franchising and Wage Bargaining

A franchising contract relocates distributable rent between franchisor and franchisee. With decentralized wage bargaining relocation modifies the position of the union in the wage bargaining. If the rent is relocated to the franchisor completely, then even a strong union is not able to raise wage above reservation level in the franchisee's firm. If franchisor and franchisee negotiate on rent division, there is an incentive to increase the franchise fee at the expense of the union. Therefore the overall rent assigned to labor depends on the differences of labor intensity in the franchisor's and franchisee's firms. Firm owners may be able to transfer distributable rents from a firm with a strong union to one with a weak union. Furthermore, a franchising contract shows a first mover advantage. A franchising contract is placed before wage bargaining, benefiting the franchisor.     

Wages and Wage-Bargaining Institutions in the EMU – A Survey of the Issues

The paper distinguishes between the impact of the EMU on nominal wage flexibility and on equilibrium real wage and unemployment levels. A perceived need to increase nominal wage flexibility as a substitute for domestic monetary policy and a tendency to less real wage moderation in the EMU are likely to promote informal bargaining coordination and social pacts in the medium run. But such coordination is not likely to be sustainable in the long run, as it conflicts with other forces working in the direction of decentralization and deunionization. This could lead to more government intervention in wage setting during a transitional period. Although monetary unification will strengthen the incentives for higher-level transnational coordination of wage bargaining, such a development is improbable in view of the coordination costs involved. If transnational coordination develops, it is most likely to occur within multinational firms.     

Wage bargaining and employment revisited: separability and efficiency in collective bargaining*

We analyse the two-dimensional Nash bargaining solution (NBS) by deploying the standard labour market negotiations model of McDonald and Solow. We show that the two-dimensional bargaining problem can be decomposed into two one-dimensional problems, such that the two solutions together replicate the solution of the two-dimensional problem if the NBS is applied. The axiom of “independence of irrelevant alternatives” is shown to be crucial for this type of decomposability. This result has significant implications for actual negotiations because it allows for the decomposition of a multi-dimensional bargaining problem into one-dimensional problems – and thus helps to facilitate real-world negotiations.     

Parasitic-Industries Analysis and Arguments for a Living Wage for Women in the Early Twentieth-Century United States

This paper examines arguments by activists and economists surrounding attempts to establish minimum wages for women in the United States in the Progressive Era. In particular, the paper focuses on analyses based on Beatrice and SidneyWebbs' argument that industries paying less than a living wage were "parasitic" on the society, a net drain on macro-efficiency. This analysis, widely accepted among economists of the time, viewed women as particularly vulnerable workers facing labor markets that were institutionally constructed and predatory. Unequal gender roles, employer power, and the absence of collective bargaining could all result in wages that were socially unacceptable as well as economically nonoptimal. These debates offer insights for modern feminist wage theories, and for current living wage campaigns.     

Progressive Taxation and Wage Setting: Some Evidence for Denmark

The proposition that a progressive tax system contributes to wage moderation is studied using Danish earnings data disaggregated by occupation, gender and earnings level. Our main conclusions are that income-tax progression affects wage setting, but whether it moderates or exaggerates wage pressure is income dependent. An increase in progressivity reduces the pre-tax earnings of middle-income workers (manual male workers and moderate income earners among both male and female non-manual workers). The reverse is found for high-income earners (non-manual male workers), in that an increase in progressivity tends to raise pre-tax earnings. Finally, there is no significant effect of tax progressivity on the wages of low-income earners.
JEL classification : H 3; J 3; J 5; J 6     

Changes in the Finnish Wage Structure: Will Demand and Supply Do?

This study addresses changes in the wage structure in Finland between 1977 and 1995, and provides a simple explanation based on the demand for and supply of skills. The single index model of Card and Lemieux (1996) is augmented by incorporating changes in the supply of skills. The augmented model adequately accounts for the changes in relative wages between groups of different education and experience, but does not capture the changes in the within-group distribution.
JEL classification : J 31     

Counter intuitive results in a simple model of wage negotiations

Summary. Short-term contracts and exogenous productivity growth are introduced in a simple wage bargaining model. The equilibrium utilities corresponding to militant union behaviour are independent of the contract length. Necessary and sufficient conditions for monotonic convergence to a unique steady state are derived. Otherwise, cyclic behaviour of wage shares is inevitable. A wage decrease can occur if strike is credible, but never when strike is not credible. In the limit, as time between bargaining rounds vanishes, this paradox survives. Received: September 3, 1998; revised version: February 10, 2000     

薪酬改革效果的定量评估

薪酬制度不但是公司的价值分配系统,而且是管理劳动力的有效手段。随着公司的发展,不可避免地要对薪酬体系进行变革。目前,大多数企业对薪酬改革的评估仍然停留在主观层面。至于薪酬改革对企业的贡献是多少,新的薪酬制度相对旧的制度好在哪里、差在哪里以及程度如何却不甚了了。本文以H公司的薪酬改革为例,探讨了如何使用定量方法评估薪酬改革的效果。     

Conflict, Effort and Capital Stock in UK Wage Determination

The paper is concerned with the determination of wages, unemployment and labour productivity in the UK. The theoretical model suggests that in addition to economic factors, historical and ideological elements play an important role in the determination of wages, unemployment and productivity. Particular emphasis is put on the capital shortage hypothesis. It is argued that capital scrapping in response to the two oil price shocks, combined with subsequent sluggish growth in capital, may be responsible for the rise of the NAIRU and the persistence of unemployment. The empirical analysis is concerned with testing the theoretical model, using quarterly data for the UK from 1966 until 1994. We use cointegration analysis for the determination of wages, unemployment and labour productivity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Wage discrimination and population composition in the long run

We derive the conditions that sign the effects of changing population composition on wage levels and ratios, when labor supply and discrimination preferences vary. The overall effect depends on an aggregate market, a relative market, and a preference distribution effect.     

中国劳动力市场名义工资粘性程度的估算

本文完成了对中国劳动力市场名义工资粘性程度的首次估算,发现中国的名义工资粘性处于世界较低水平。这具有重要的宏观政策含义:一方面表明中国的劳动力市场具有很强的"自我调节"经济波动的特性,另一方面说明中央银行扩张性的货币政策将更多地带来物价水平上涨,而不是产出增加。在此基础上,本文还区分了劳动者的收入、工龄、户口、企业类型、行业等特征,对不同人群的工资粘性进行了细致测算。进一步,本文创新地区分并估算了名义工资的向上粘性与向下粘性,发现自2002年以来,中国劳动力市场的向下粘性不断增大,而向上粘性的变化趋势并不明显。     

Wage Flexibility and Unemployment: The Keynesian Perspective Revisited

Keynes' main concern in the General Theory is about the capacity of an economy to return to full employment equilibrium when subject to a (negative) demand shock. He maintains that money wages cuts may not help reabsorb unemployment, as they do not necessarily imply a fall in real wages. On the contrary, wage rigidity may be necessary for avoiding that a cumulative process propels the economy far away the full employment equilibrium. Co‐ordination failures in the investment‐saving market are behind this conclusion. However, the analysis is carried out within a static equilibrium framework. This paper is an attempt to focus on the problems of intertemporal co‐ordination arising within the context of a sequential economy. Our analysis of the out‐of‐equilibrium process of adjustment stirred by a shock allows to generalize the original Keynesian intuition. Unemployment emerges as the result of a lack of co‐ordination due to irreversibly constrained choices, and not only nominal but also real wage flexibility does not necessarily help to restore equilibrium. As a matter of fact, it may even be harmful, by triggering processes that make the economy diverge from equilibrium. Our analysis has important analytical implications as regards the role of market imperfections and the interpretation of the effects of monetary policy.     

技能型技术进步、南北贸易与工资不平衡

本文试图将技能型技术进步与产业内贸易置于一个框架中对工资不平衡现象进行理论解释。自由贸易通过促使发达国家产品质量阶梯提升型的技术进步而加剧了该国的工资不平衡程度;同时,自由贸易通过促使发展中国家产品种类数增加型的技术进步而加剧了该国的工资不平衡程度。南北贸易在拉大相对工资差距的同时促进了技能型技术进步。     

Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labour productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements – payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices – together with a higher exposure to international trade – connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economy – appear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical policy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage‐setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.