LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTATION: WAGE DIFFERENTIALS AND HYSTERESIS EFFECTS*

Competitive labour market analysis proposes that an individual's human capital endowment is the main mechanism for pay determination. This study develops a model to highlight hysteresis effects on either investment in physical capital for firms or investment in human capital for workers on wage differentials.     

DETERMINATION OF PARTICIPATION DECISION, HIRING DECISION, AND WAGES IN A DOUBLE SELECTION FRAMEWORK: MALE-FEMALE WAGE DIFFERENTIALS IN THE U.S. LABOR MARKET REVISITED

The magnitude of the male-female wage differential is known to be highly sensitive to the specification of the wage equations used. An important source of misspecification is the failure to correct the sample selection bias that results from estimating the wage equation obtained through two sequential decisions: the worker's decision to participate in the labor market and the employer's decision to hire. Estimation of the wage equation ignoring this double selection process leads to biased estimates, and consequently the resulting male-female wage differentials are likely to be misleading. Following a double selection approach and using a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examines the determinants of not only the wage equation but also the worker's participation and the employer's hiring decisions in both male and female samples. The study further demonstrates that the unexplained male-female wage differential remains underestimated when the roles of both selection decisions are ignored in the estimation of wage equations.     

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF INTER-INDUSTRY WAGE DIFFERENTIALS

We use OECD data to examine inter-industry wage differentials (relative wages among industries) for 14 OECD countries over the period 1970–85. We find, first, that the industrial wage structures have shown remarkable stability over time in terms of rank order for all the countries in the sample. Second, despite their rank order stability, wage structures show a tendency to expand or contract. While the U.S. has shown increasing industry wage dispersion between 1970 and 1985, the pattern is very mixed for other countries. Unionization is a significant factor in explaining cross-country differences. Third, industry wage rankings show some evidence of becoming increasingly similar across nations over time, and this movement is associated with a convergence of per capita incomes. Fourth, industry wage differentials are positively related to an industry's productivity growth, output growth, capital intensity, and export orientation.     

WAGE DIFFERENTIALS AND OCCUPATIONAL WAGE PREMIA: FIRM-LEVEL EVIDENCE FOR BRAZIL AND CHILE

This paper examines wage differentials at the firm level in Chile and Brazil, using data for 1985 and 1991, and 1987 respectively. The high level of disaggregation in the data available for Chile enables us also to analyze the degree to which wage differentials between individual employers are similar across occupations.
The results of this study reaffirm those of previous research pointing to non-competitive explanations for wage differentials, specifically providing clear evidence that inter-firm wage premia are highly correlated across occupations.     

WORKER INVESTMENTS IN SAFETY,WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS,AND COMPENSATING WAGE DIFFERENTIALS

The theory of compensating wage differentials (CWDs) assumes that firms supply and workers demand workplace safety, predicting a positive relationship between accident risk and wages. This article allows for safety provision by workers, which predicts a countervailing negative relationship between individual risk and wages: Firms pay higher wages for higher safety‐related productivity. Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth panel data and data on fatal and nonfatal accidents, our precise CWDs imply a value of a statistical injury of $45.4 thousand and a value of a statistical life of $6.3 million. In line with our model, individual risk and wages are negatively correlated.     

工资差异均值分解的一种新改进

本文在评述Oaxaca、Blinder、Cotton和Neumark等学者关于"指数基准问题"(index number problem)研究之演进及其局限的基础上,提出并论证了一种更具解释力的"无歧视工资结构"新形式,以更准确地推断Oaxaca-Blinder分解中歧视的大小程度。文章在对指数基准进一步挖掘、矫正和逼近的同时,从理论抽象和现实操作两个层面优化了工资差异的均值分解,深化了对歧视的理解和刻画。     

FIXED‐WAGES,WAGE DIFFERENTIALS AND WORKER HETEROGENEITIES

We study incentive‐compatible labour contracts in the case where individual productivity, preference for leisure and time preference rate are unobservable by the principal in a two‐period model. We first reduce this three‐dimensional problem to a standard one‐dimensional screening problem. Features of second‐best labour contracts provide a rationale for both fixed‐wages and wage differentials.     

GENDER WAGE DIFFERENCES IN AUSTRALIA, SWEDEN AND THE UNITED STATES

In this paper I use microdata from the Luxembourg Income Study t s investigate the contributions of industrial structure, occupational mix and personal and family characteristics to observed gender differences in wages in Australia, Sweden and the United States. A particular effort is made to analyse differences in distribution as well as level of wages. The conclusion reached is that different factors determine the wages of low- and high-wage workers. For higher-wage workers, personal and family characteristics are important explanations for wage variation. For lower-wage workers, occupation plays a more significant role.     

THE AGGREGATE DEMAND FOR LABOUR IN AUSTRALIA: A META-ANALYSIS*

In this paper, meta-analysis techniques are applied to 34 studies of the aggregate demand for Australian labour. Inverse associations between the real wage and employment and demand and unemployment are established, and positive associations between demand and employment and the real wage and unemployment are established. The associations are stronger with respect to the real wage. The results suggest that at least two-thirds of the variation in estimates across studies is artifactual and is due to specification differences. It is argued in this paper that the available studies are of limited value to policy formulation. No single empirical study can provide definitive measures of a particular parameter. This guarantees that substantial numbers of empirical studies of the more important parameters describing labor demand will have been produced. (Hamermesh, 1993, p. 61)     

INSIDER-OUTSIDER EFFECTS IN WAGE FORMATION: AN EMPIRICAL SURVEY*

The paper provides a review of empirical work on insider-outsider and duration effects in wage formation. It presents a theoretical model to investigate the relationship between previous employment and the wage rate. The impact of unemployment and long-term unemployment is considered. Empirical results show that the effect of previous employment on the wage rate is generally insignificant. Both short-term and long-term unemployment appear to have a significant negative impact. Micro-studies reveal that both firm-specific and aggregate variables play a role in wage determination.