Collective Bargaining and the Evolution of Wage Inequality in Italy

Italian male wage inequality has increased at a relatively fast pace from the mid‐1980s until the early 2000s, while it has been persistently flat since then. We analyse this trend, focusing on the period of most rapid growth in pay dispersion. By accounting for worker and firm fixed effects, it is shown that workers' heterogeneity has been a major determinant of increased wage inequalities, while variability in firm wage policies has declined over time. We also show that the growth in pay dispersion has entirely occurred between livelli di inquadramento, that is, job titles defined by national industry‐wide collective bargaining institutions, for which specific minimum wages apply. We conclude that the underlying market forces determining wage inequality have been largely channelled into the tight tracks set by the centralized system of industrial relations.     

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.     

The Impact of Wage Bargaining Regime on Firm‐Level Competitiveness and Wage Inequality: The Case of Ireland

This paper uses a linked employer‐employee dataset to analyze the impact of institutional wage bargaining regimes on average labor costs and within‐firm wage dispersion in private sector companies in Ireland. The results show that while centralized bargaining reduced labor costs within both the indigenous and foreign‐owned sectors, the relative advantage was greater among foreign‐owned firms. The analysis suggests that there are potentially large competitiveness gains to multinational companies that locate in countries implementing a centralized bargaining system. Furthermore, the results provide additional support to the view that collective bargaining reduces within‐firm wage inequality.     

Rising Wage Inequality, Returns to Education and Labour Market Institutions: Evidence from Ireland

Institutional factors and increased supply of skilled labour have been advanced in an effort to explain why some countries have experienced smaller increases in earnings dispersion and in returns to education than the USA and the UK. Ireland has had a highly centralized wage bargaining structure and the supply of skilled labour has increased sharply in recent years; hence, relatively little change in earnings dispersion might be expected. We compare the distribution of earnings in Ireland in 1987 and 1994 and find a surprisingly large growth in earnings dispersion. In addition, using a decomposition technique, we find that much of this is accounted for by increasing returns to measured.     

Individual Wage Growth: The Role of Industry Experience

This paper focuses on the effect of experience within an industry on wages. I use a correlated random effects simultaneous equation model that allows individual and match heterogeneity to affect wages, job tenure, and industry experience. I estimate my model separately for men and women using a large panel of young Italian workers for the years 1986–2004. Results show that wage returns to industry experience are much higher than wage returns to job seniority. The hypotheses of exogeneity of job seniority and industry experience in the wage equation are rejected: high‐wage workers and high‐wage matches last longer.     

The Reserve Army Effect, Unions, and Nominal Wage Growth

This paper analyzes the reserve army effect from a perspective which integrates propositions from the social structures of accumulation and regulation approaches. The magnitude of the reserve army effect on nominal wage growth ought to vary according to the subperiods 1958–1970, 1970–1980, and 1980–1987, and also according to subsectors with different unionization rates. This hypothesis is tested empirically by estimating the effect of demand pressure variables on nominal wage growth for heavily, moderately, and lightly unionized sectors. The results generally confirm the hypothesis, while at the same time showing clear differences in the impact of collective bargaining on the reserve army effect between 1958–1970 and 1980–1987.     

Changes in Union Status, Increased Competition and Wage Growth in the 1980s

This paper reports that unionized firms experienced lower average wage growth than their non-union counterparts between 1984 and 1988. We attempt to evaluate the relative importance of two possible explanatory factors, the union-related legislation of the 1980s, and increases in product market competition. While recognizing that these factors are intertwined, the results suggest the latter is of primary importance.     

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.     

‘Fair Work’ and the Modernization of Australian Labour Standards: A Case of Institutional Plasticity Entrenching Deepening Wage Inequality

Australia was long recognized for its relatively compressed wage structure. From the 1940s to the 1970s this was associated with a comprehensive regime of ‘award‐based’ minimum wages. Since the 1980s, this has been subjected to comprehensive ‘modernization’. After three decades of reform and in the most supportive economic environment in the OECD, Australian wage inequality has deepened. Although multiple political‐economic forces have been at play, the evolution of Australia's labour standards regime is an example of ‘institutional plasticity’ whereby the purpose and operations of wage‐setting institutions not only evolves but can actually be inverted over time.     

经济增长与不平等对我国农村脱贫时间的影响

选择FGT贫困指数和脱贫时间指数,利用世界银行公布的我国农村贫困线和收入分配分组数据。对比分析了1981年-2005年以来的农村贫困变化趋势。研究发现,农村贫困状况虽然总体上呈缓解趋势,但在脱贫时间指数的构成中,由于不平等所延长的脱贫时间,无论从绝对量还是相对量上都明显提高,这说明收入分配的恶化已经成为反贫困的严重障碍,这种变化趋势值得高度关注。     

Unions,Wage Gaps,and Wage Dispersion: New Evidence from the Americas

Using a common methodology, the effects of unions on wage levels and wage dispersion are estimated for two neighboring countries, Bolivia and Chile, and for the United States. The analysis shows that unions have broadly similar effects on the wage distribution within these three economies. The findings suggest that the political economy of unions, coupled with market constraints on labor costs, produce commonality in union wage effects that transcend other economic and institutional differences.     

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.     

Production Technology and the Interindutry Wage Structure

This paper presents a model in which production technology (scale and capital-intensity) explains interindustry differences in the earnings of workers with similar skill in similarly attrative jobs. The empirical analysis shows that manufacturing industires fall into three segments with broadly similar production technologies, and that prodcut market and employment characteristics vary as expected across these segments. Capital intensity and job-skill requirements are found to have positive wage effects for the full set of industries, but the resluts by segment suggest that the capital-intensity effect increases, and the skill effects decreases, with the capital-intensity of prodcution.     

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.     

Previous Marriage and the Lesbian Wage Premium

This paper provides insight into the wage gap between partnered lesbians and other groups of women. Using data from the 2000 Decennial Census, we find that wages of never-married lesbians are significantly higher than wages of previously married lesbians and other groups of women. Results indicate that controlling for previous marriage reduces the estimated lesbian wage premium by approximately 20 percent. Our research also reveals that wage patterns of previously married lesbians mirror those of cohabiting heterosexual women. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that the lesbian wage premium is driven, in part, by differences in the labor-market commitment of lesbians and heterosexual women.     

Negotiating the Gender Wage Gap

There is some evidence that gender differences exist in the propensity to negotiate and outcomes from negotiation. We examine the propensity to negotiate over pay with the employer, the wage outcomes resulting from negotiation, and the impact on the gender wage gap. We find evidence that females are less likely to have the opportunity to negotiate over pay. However, conditional on the opportunity to negotiate, they are no less likely to actually negotiate. The analysis does not provide strong evidence that women fare worse than men if negotiation occurs.