Wage Discrimination, Segregation, and Sex Differences in Wages and Productivity Within and Between Plants

We use panel data on Israeli manufacturing plants to test two explanations of lower wages and lower productivity in plants with a higher percentage of females: (1) within plants women are paid less and are less productive, consistent with no discrimination, and (2) women are segregated into lower-wage and lower-productivity plants. Although the variation in productivity across plants appears to stem from differences in productivity between men and women, the estimates suggest no within-plant wage differential between men and women.     

Employment Contacts and Minority-White Wage Differences

We study effects of job contacts on wages in inner-city Boston in 1989 and in the 1982 NLSY. Race/Hispanicity differences in wages are not explained by an absence of contacts among minority youths. Rather, in the Boston data, lower wages of black youths are explained by lower "returns" to their contacts. In the NLSY there is little evidence of lower return to black youths' contacts, but there is evidence of lower returns to Hispanic youths' contacts.     

Decentralization of Collective Agreements and Rising Wage Inequality in Israel

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the decentralization of the Israeli system of collective bargaining and its contribution to the rise in earnings inequality. We quantitatively analyze all collective agreements that were signed between 1957 and 2003, and present the scale, scope, and timing of five dimensions of decentralization. The findings suggest that decentralization started in the mid‐1970s when national agreements were less likely to be extended to nonunion employees; it was intensified in 1975–1980 when nationwide industrial agreements were supplanted by occupational and local agreements. Decentralization became fully consolidated by 1987 when peak‐level agreements covering the entire private sector were no longer signed. We then present evidence (including time‐series analyses that control for union density and macroeconomic indicators) that the process of decentralization, especially the decline in the use of extension orders and the proliferation of local agreements, explains a significant part of the sharp rise in earnings inequality in Israel during 1970–2003.     

Black-White Wage Differences among Young Women, 1977-86

Until the 1970s, wage rates converged for black and white women, especially young women. However, the pay gap between black and white women in their twenties rose. 074 log points between 1977 and 1986. This paper uses data from the 1977 National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women and the 1986 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to explore reasons for the change. Changes in the relative level of work experience and in the rate of return to schooling are emphasized.     

Wage Differentials by Race and Sex: The Roles of Taste Discrimination and Labor Market Information

Using a unique dataset, this article first documents that gaps in starting wages by race and sex persist after accounting for performance on the job. Evidence suggests that simple statistical discrimination, and not just taste discrimination, is partly responsible for race differences in starting wages. But because women's average performance in the sample is higher than men's, simple statistical discrimination cannot explain the sex gap. In more complex models of statistical discrimination, worse information about a group can lower its average wage. Estimates of the quality of labor market information indicate that this may explain women's lower starting wages.     

Grumpier Old Men: Age and Sex Differences in the Evaluation of New Services

Little research attention has centered on how age and sex affect consumers' evaluations of new products and services. In this study an individual's age and sex are associated with his or her evaluation of new services, that is, newly released motion pictures. Using data acquired from publicly available and proprietary sources, nearly 2,100 motion pictures released in the United States from 1982 through 2000 were analyzed. The results show that older consumers are more critical of new services and rate them lower after consuming them relative to younger ones. The results also show that women evaluate new services significantly more favorably than men. Interestingly, these results appear robust because women did not rate products that are normally developed and targeted to men (e.g., action/adventure and science‐fiction movies) lower than men evaluated them; no evidence to support the notion of a “chick flick” was found. Implications for conducting marketing research when developing new products and services are offered.     

Career Success Networks in China: Sex Differences in Network Composition and Social Exchange Practices

Through structured interviews with 108 senior and middle managers in China, we compared the composition and social exchange practices of Chinese male and female managers' career success networks (CSNs). The results indicated that most of the CSN ties formed by both male and female managers are with men, especially power ties. Male and female managers differed in the extent to which they engaged in instrumental and expressive transactions with same- and opposite-sex CSN alters, reciprocated the help provided by CSN alters, and socialized outside of the workplace with opposite-sex alters. The implications of these results for career success in China are discussed.     

International Differences in Wage Inequality: A New Glance with European Matched Employer–Employee Data

Using international harmonized matched employer–employee micro data from the European Structure of Earnings Survey for nine European countries, this article examines the origin of international differences in wage inequality. Wage inequality is highly correlated with the magnitude of inter‐firm wage differentials. Workplace‐ and job‐related factors generally have a more significant impact on within‐country wage inequality than individual characteristics. European countries differ significantly not only in the extent of wage inequality but also in the relative influence of factors shaping wage inequality. Although cross‐country differences in labour force composition play a part in the explanation, differences in the distribution and in labour market prices attached to workplace and job characteristics are the primary factors contributing to international differences in wage inequality.     

Menu Costs, Nominal Wage Revisions, and Intracontract Wage Behavior

We use data from indexed and nonindexed Canadian wage agreements to study the intracontract profile of nominal and real wages. Allowing for endogenous switching between the two indexation categories, we conclude that the number of nominal wage revisions depends on contract duration, expected inflation, and the cost of adjusting wages. Our results have implications for the menu cost, overlapping contracts, dynamic monopoly union, and efficient bargain literatures.     

Decentralized Wage Formation in Sweden

Recent Swedish collective bargaining agreements have incorporated provisions for local pay review talks and opportunities for individuals to negotiate their own wages. Using trade union data, we show that members who participate in local pay review talks and members who negotiate their own wages have significantly higher monthly wages than those who do not. Pay decentralization either improves an individual's bargaining position or attracts more productive trade union members. Either way, trade union wage policies to increase individual‐level wage variance are achieving their intended effects.     

Collective Bargaining and Wage Dispersion in Europe

The level at which collective bargaining takes place is usually considered important in determining wage levels and wage inequalities. Two different situations are considered: a first in which bargaining is only ‘multi‐employer’, and a second in which it is ‘multi‐level’, in the sense that workers can be covered by both a ‘multi‐employer’ and a ‘single‐employer’ contract at the same time. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of these different institutional settings on pay dispersion. The study is carried out using the European Structure of Earnings Survey, which is a large dataset containing detailed matched employer–employee information for the year 1995. The countries analysed are Italy, Belgium and Spain. The empirical results generally show that wages of workers covered by only a ‘multi‐employer’ contract are no more compressed than those of workers covered by both ‘multi‐employer’ and ‘single‐employer’ contracts. This implies that where workers are not covered by single‐employer bargaining, they receive wage supplements paid unilaterally by their employers.     

Successful Wage Concertation: The Economic Effects of Wage Pacts and Their Alternatives

Recent debates on pacts have focused on the prerequisites for their emergence, whereas questions of their efficacy have receded into the background. In particular, systematic analyses of the effectiveness of pacts in terms of their capacity to enhance economic performance are missing. The aim of this article is therefore to assess the economic impact of pacts. As the majority of pacts concern wages, the assessment will concentrate on a comparison of the performance of pacts with alternative governance mechanisms for wage policies, that is, alternative pay‐setting modes. The findings show that when wage pacts are endowed with the ability to govern lower‐level pay determination, they are better at enhancing economic performance than other forms of coordination.