Downward nominal wage rigidity in Europe: an analysis of European micro data from the ECHP 1994–2001

This paper substantially extends the available evidence on downward nominal wage rigidity in the European Union (EU) and the Euro Area. We develop an econometric multi-country model based on Kahn’s (Am Econ Rev 87(5):993–1008, 1997) histogram-location approach and apply it to employee micro data from the European Community Household Panel for 12 of the EU’s member states. Our estimates for the degree of downward nominal wage rigidity on the national as well as the EU-wide level point to substantial downward nominal wage rigidity within the EU. A detailed comparison with other cross-national studies reveals an emerging consensus about which countries can be characterized as high or low rigidity countries, although the status of some countries remains unclear. The variation in national degrees of downward nominal wage rigidity cannot convincingly be explained by institutional variables.      

How Rigid are Nominal Wages? Evidence and Implications for Germany*

Many recent attempts to find evidence on downward nominal wage rigidity in micro data have suffered from problems such as composition bias and the effects of measurement error. In this paper, a model of proportional downward nominal wage rigidity is developed which avoids these problems by taking into account the determinants of wage changes and the measurement process that leads to observable earnings changes. We find a high degree of downward nominal wage rigidity in German micro data. Its real implications for individual expected wage growth, the aggregate wage level and equilibrium unemployment have marked effects for rates of inflation lower than 3 percent.     

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。     

Downward nominal wage rigidity: Evidence from Canada 1901–1950

This paper tests for the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity in Canadian wage data for 26 occupations in 38 cities from the first half of the 20th century. The sample is of particular interest as it contains periods with average inflation rates that are close to zero as well as two sharp deflations. Results from a variety of different tests indicate that wage change distributions are consistent with the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity. However, for two subsamples containing sharp declines in output and prices, estimates of the extent of downward nominal wage rigidity are much lower. This suggests that downwards adjustments did occur during times of severe depression and deflation.     

Rent sharing before and after the wage bill

Many biases plague the analysis of whether employers share rents with their employees, unlike what is predicted by the competitive labour market model. Using a Portuguese matched employer-employee panel, this article is one of the first to address these biases in three complementary ways: (1) Controlling directly for the fact that firms that share more rents will, ceteris paribus, have lower net-of-wages profits. (2) Instrumenting profits via interactions between the exchange rate and the share of exports in firm's total sales. (3) Considering firm or firm/worker spell fixed effects and highlighting the role of downward wage rigidity. These approaches clarify conflicting findings in the literature and result, in our preferred specifications, in significant evidence of rent sharing (a Lester range of pay dispersion of 56%), also shown to be robust to a number of competitive interpretations.     

Downward Nominal Rigidity in West German Earnings, 1975–95

If downward nominal wage rigidity exists, it should affect the distribution of earnings changes. We present a common analytical framework for three distinct and previously unconnected approaches to the analysis of downward nominal rigidity, the skewness–location approach, the symmetry approach and the histogram–location approach. We modify them by dropping the assumption of time-invariant rigidity and apply them to earnings data from the IAB-Beschftigtenstichprobe (IABS). We find that the distribution of West German log earnings changes is indeed affected by downward nominal rigidity. Our modification of the approaches also allows us to find that the degree of nominal rigidity depends on business cycle conditions, with weaker rigidity in times of rising unemployment. Our findings support the critics of very low inflation targets.     

The asymmetric impacts of monetary policy on housing prices: A viewpoint of housing price rigidity

Previous studies have discovered the defensive characteristics of housing prices, which is also known as downward price rigidity. This paper discusses whether this feature would result in an asymmetric relationship between housing prices and monetary policy. This paper first uses the loss aversion behavior of traders to assess the viability of housing price rigidity in the housing market and to deduce further that if downward housing price rigidity actually existed, then the impact of monetary policy on housing prices should be asymmetric. For empirical tests, this paper uses data from the UK housing market and then uses the money supply as the proxy variable of monetary policy. The relationships between these two variables are observed. This paper performs estimation using both traditional and threshold error correction models by comparing the coefficients of both models. The results indicate that housing price is indeed asymmetrically adjusted to money supply. When housing prices increase to reflect a loose monetary policy, a modification behavior is evident. Conversely, housing prices cannot easily reflect a tight monetary policy. This result indicates that housing prices tend to overreact in upturn and underreact in downturn. The results imply that when implementing relevant policies for the housing market, the government should consider the asymmetry of housing price changes. Otherwise, the situation can easily result in the creation of a bubble or the collapse of the housing market because of incorrect policies.     

Dynamic Model for Market Competition and Price Rigidity

This article presents a price floor model in which durability, unit costs and production period are factors in explaining price rigidity. This article elaborates that cost structure plays an essential role in resolving the inconclusive relationship between market concentration and price rigidity. When the industry is characterized by decreasing returns of scale, the degree of price flexibility decreases as market competition intensifies. The reverse is true when the industry exhibits increasing returns of scale. The factors that cause price rigidity also foster price adjustment asymmetry and price adjustment lag. During times of recession, the model exhibits upward price flexibility as costs increase, but downward price rigidity as costs decrease. Even under forward-looking expectations, the way in which firms adjust prices could look as though they have adaptive expectations. If price stickiness is a characteristic of market competition, then public policies determined by price level could be too drastic for firms in competitive markets.     

Convenient prices,cash payments and price rigidity

Recent works suggest that convenient prices that match monetary denominations exhibit above-average price rigidity and are set up by firms that have incentives to be paid in cash. The relationship between convenient prices and cash usage has however never been explicitly examined. This paper proposes a model that relates convenient prices to cash usage and exploits to test it a unique dataset in 2011 on cash payments and prices by a representative sample of French consumers. In line with the model, estimation results bring direct evidence that individuals' shares of cash payments increase with convenient prices. This finding confirms that price rigidity can be in part explained by the use of cash to pay convenient prices.     

Downward Wage Rigidity in Europe: A New Flexible Parametric Approach and Empirical Results

Abstract. We suggest a new parametric approach to estimate the extent of downward nominal wage rigidity in ten European countries between 1995 and 2001. The database used throughout is the User Data Base of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The proposed approach is based on the generalized hyperbolic distribution, which allows to model wage change distributions characterized by thick tales, skewness and leptokurtosis. Significant downward nominal wage rigidity is found in all countries under analysis, but the extent varies considerably across countries. Yearly estimates reveal increasing rigidity in Italy, Greece and Portugal, while rigidity is declining in Denmark and Belgium. The results imply that the costs of price stability differ substantially across Europe.     

How do firms adjust their prices in Turkey? Micro-level evidence

This article investigates the pricing behaviour of Turkish firms over the period 1988–2006 on the basis of firm-level micro data. The duration of prices is found to be 3.9 months on average. There is no clear heterogeneity across main groupings in the frequency of price changes, but more dependence on imported goods reduces price stickiness. Price decreases are less frequent than price increases, indicating downward rigidity in prices. There is evidence in favour of both time and state-dependent price setting behaviours. Further, there is a low degree of synchronization of price changes across firms, whereas price increases tend to be more synchronized than price decreases. Ordered probit models show that price adjustments depend on the type of the shock: the pass-through of a change in the cost is faster than changing demand. Besides, estimated probabilities of price adjustments with 5-years rolling windows reveal that inflation targeting has succeeded in bringing down the probability of price increases, whereas downward price rigidity has not weakened yet.     

Downward wage rigidity and job mobility

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) we study whether being individually affected by downward wage rigidity has an effect on layoffs, quits and intra-firm mobility. Within a structural empirical model we estimate the individual extent of wage rigidity. This is expressed by the wage sweep-up, which measures by how much individual wage growth increases through the effect of downward wage rigidity when compared to a counterfactual labour market with flexible wage setting. We find robust negative effects of wage sweep-up on quits and layoffs and some evidence for a positive association of wage sweep-up and promotion opportunities. This is consistent with a core-periphery view of the labour force, where a core work force is protected from layoffs and wage cuts and at the same time enjoys good promotion opportunities. On the other side a peripheral work force provides a buffer for adjustment and suffers from both flexible wages, more insecure jobs and less internal promotion opportunities.      

Pay Growth,Fairness, and Job Satisfaction: Implications for Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity

Theories of wage rigidity often rely on a positive relationship between pay changes and utility, arising from concern for fairness or gift exchange. Supportive evidence has emerged from laboratory experiments, but the link has not yet been established with field data. This paper contributes a first step, using representative British data. Workers care about the level and the growth of earnings. Below‐median wage increases lead to an insult effect, except when similar workers have real wage reductions or when firm production is falling. Nominal pay cuts appear to be insulting even when the firm is doing badly.     

How does FDI affect domestic firms’ wages? theory and evidence from Vietnam

This paper explores the role of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) as a determinant of domestic firms’ wages, namely wage spillovers. We first construct a theoretical model to demonstrate that the presence of FDI firms affects domestic firms’ expected average wages via productivity spillovers and a cut-off capability. We then estimate FDI-induced wage spillovers by employing IV-GMM estimator with a five-year panel dataset of a growing service industry in Vietnam. Despite FDI firms on average pay 2.25 times that of domestic firms, they put a downward pressure on domestic firms’ wages. A one percent increase in FDI presence causes domestic firms to cut average wages by 2.03 percent. The estimations also find that firm-specific features are attributable to significant differences in their wages as well as FDI-linked wage spillovers.     

Is Downward Wage Flexibility the Primary Factor of Japan's Prolonged Deflation?

By using both macro‐ and micro‐level data, this paper investigates how wages and prices evolved during Japan's lost two decades. We find that downward nominal wage rigidity was present in Japan until the late 1990s, but disappeared after 1998 as annual wages became downwardly flexible. Moreover, nominal wage flexibility may have contributed to Japan's relatively low unemployment rates. Although macro‐level movements in nominal wages and prices seemed to be synchronized, such synchronicity is not observed at the industry level. Therefore, wage deflation does not seem to be a primary factor of Japan's prolonged deflation.     

Pre-recession wage inflation and the strength of the subsequent recovery

This study shows that the rate of wage inflation in the year before a recession is positively related to the rate of employment growth in the subsequent recovery. A possible explanation for this relationship is downward nominal wage rigidity. It is also found that the prior rate of wage inflation is not significantly related to the employment decline during the ensuing recession, suggesting that prior wage inflation has a greater impact on the strength of the recovery from a recession than on the severity of the recession.     

Interest rate pass through and asymmetric adjustment: evidence from the federal funds rate operating target period

This study examines the long-run interest rate pass through of the federal funds rate to the prime rate and whether there is asymmetric adjustment in the prime rate using the Enders–Siklos (2001) momentum threshold autoregressive model over the period February 1987 to October 2005. Once allowance is made for the endogenously determined structural break in the cointegrating relationship in April 1996, the adjustment of the prime rate to changes in the federal funds rate appears asymmetric with upward rigidity, a result contrary to previous studies which found that the prime rate exhibits downward rigidity. The finding of upward rigidity in the prime rate lends support for the customer reaction and adverse selection hypotheses. Moreover, the empirical evidence seems to support the observation of increased pass through as a result of heightened competition in the banking industry as well as the Federal Reserve's enhanced transparency in monetary policy during the 1990s.     

Time and place where gold acts as an inflation hedge: An application of long-run and short-run threshold model

This study examines the short-run and long-run inflation hedging effectiveness of gold in the United States and Japan during the period of January 1971 to January 2010. Previous research has shown in the long-run that inflation tends to appropriately increase the price of gold in the U.S., leading to gold's popularity as an asset in portfolios to reduce the risk against sudden inflation. However, gold is only partially effective in hedging against inflation in Japan. This research found that the rigidity between the price of gold and the consumer price index affects the inflation hedging ability of gold in the long-run. The gold price is characterized by market disequilibrium induced by the price rigidity, causing the price of gold to be unable to response to changes in the CPI. To explore the inflation hedging ability of gold in the short-run, this study further examines the price rigidity in low and high momentum regime. It is found during the low momentum regimes that, gold return is unable to hedge against inflation in either the U.S. or Japan. However, during high momentum regimes, gold return is able to hedge against inflation in the U.S., while the price rigidity in Japan causes the price of gold to not fully hedge against inflation in the short-run.     

MONOPOLY POWER AND DOWNWARD PRICE RIGIDITY UNDER COSTLY PRICE ADJUSTMENT

A method of 'backward deduction' is used to analyse the decisions of a firm, setting price and quantity before demand observations are made, with the option to adjust price at a cost after demand is observed. It is shown for such a firm that the events of (1) downward price rigidity; (2) overproduction; and (3) a high degree of monopoly power are closely related. The paper distinguishes itself from the previous literature on costly price adjustment in its treatment of disequilibrium situations and focus on monopoly power in relation to price rigidity. The main results are obtained for a linear demand curve and a uniform demand distribution.     

Does downward nominal wage rigidity dampen wage increases?

Focusing on the compression of wage cuts, many empirical studies find a high degree of downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR). However, the resulting macroeconomic effects seem to be surprisingly weak. This contradiction can be explained within an intertemporal framework in which DNWR not only prevents nominal wage cuts but also induces firms to compress wage increases. We analyze whether a compression of wage increases occurs when DNWR is binding by applying Unconditional Quantile Regression and Seemingly Unrelated Regression to a dataset comprising more than 169 million wage changes. We find evidence of a compression of wage increases and only very small effects of DNWR on average real wage growth. The results indicate that DNWR does not provide a strong argument against low inflation targets.