Statistical tests for the universality of youth employment mechanisms in segmented labour markets

Patterns of youth employment among manual workers by sex in 47 industrial sectors in the six leading EEC economies in three years (1966, 1972 and 1978) are analysed statistically with a model which relates youth employment share to two aspects of national pay structures: the degree of labour market segmentation (indicated by pay dispersion for adult employees of the same sex) and the importance of wage for age rules (indicated by youth relative pay). Each pay variable proves influential, with the partial exception of female relative pay. Tests for similarity of pay coefficients across countries and time lead to the rejection of both a universal relationship and the national dichotomy in the relative pay relationship which was suggested by earlier results. At the same time, as the economic importance of differences in pay coefficients by country is secondary, major differences between countries in outcomes in the youth labour market arise more from the attributes of national payment systems than from the parameters of employment share functions.