Wage Compression within the Firm: Evidence from an Indexation Scheme

2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (624) ◽  
pp. 3256-3291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Leonardi ◽  
Michele Pellizzari ◽  
Domenico Tabasso

Abstract We revisit the role of labour market institutions by showing how they affect the sharing of firm-specific rents between employers and employees. We look at an Italian wage indexation mechanism (‘Scala Mobile’) that compressed the distribution of wages, imposing real wage increases at the bottom of the distribution. After developing a simplified version of a search model with intra-firm bargaining and on-the-job search, we document that skilled workers received lower wage adjustments when employed at firms with many unskilled workers and they tended to move towards more skill-intensive firms. Moreover, the system drove the least skill-intensive firms out of the market.

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherif Khalifa

This paper attempts to determine the factors generating the persistence of unemployment over the business cycle. The observations show that the total unemployment rate is highly persistent, and that the persistence of the unemployment rate of unskilled workers is higher than that of skilled workers. To account for these observations, the paper develops a framework that features search frictions. Individuals are either high educated or low educated, and firms post two types of vacancies: the complex, which can be matched with the high educated, and the simple, which can be matched with the high and the low educated. On-the-job search for a complex occupation is undertaken by the high educated in simple occupations. A negative aggregate technological shock induces the high educated unemployed to compete with the low educated by increasing their search intensity for simple vacancies. As the high educated occupy simple vacancies, they crowd out the low educated into unemployment. This downgrading of jobs in a cyclical downturn, or the increase in the labor input of the high educated in simple occupations, and the subsequent crowding out of the low educated into unemployment, provide a possible explanation for unemployment persistence.


2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 1551-1596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Bagger ◽  
François Fontaine ◽  
Fabien Postel-Vinay ◽  
Jean-Marc Robin

We develop and estimate an equilibrium job search model of worker careers, allowing for human capital accumulation, employer heterogeneity, and individual-level shocks. Wage growth is decomposed into contributions of human capital and job search, within and between jobs. Human capital accumulation is largest for highly educated workers. The contribution from job search to wage growth, both within and between jobs, declines over the first ten years of a career—the “job-shopping” phase of a working life—after which workers settle into high-quality jobs using outside offers to generate gradual wage increases, thus reaping the benefits from competition between employers. (JEL J24, J31, J63, J64)


2021 ◽  
pp. 089484532199164
Author(s):  
Adam M. Kanar ◽  
Dave Bouckenooghe

This study aimed to understand the role of regulatory focus for influencing self-directed learning activities during a job search. The authors surveyed 185 job-searching university students at two time points to explore the conditions under which regulatory focus (promotion and prevention foci) impacts self-directed learning activities and the number of employment interviews secured. Both promotion and prevention foci showed significant relationships with self-directed learning activities and number of interviews, and positive and negative affect partially mediated these relationships. The relationships between both regulatory focus strategies and self-directed learning were also contingent on self-efficacy. More specifically, prevention focus and self-directed learning showed a positive relationship for job seekers with high levels of self-efficacy but a negative one for job seekers with low levels of self-efficacy. This research extends the understanding of the role of regulatory focus in the context of self-directed learning during a job search. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 1039-1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Bontemps ◽  
Jean-Marc Robin ◽  
Gerard J. Van den Berg
Keyword(s):  

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leora Friedberg ◽  
Michael T Owyang ◽  
Tara M Sinclair

Abstract Recent declines in job tenure have coincided with a shift away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions, which reward long tenure. New evidence also points to an increase in job-to-job movements by workers, and we document gains in relative wages of job-to-job movers over a similar period. We develop a search model in which firms may offer tenure-based contracts like DB pensions to reduce the incidence of costly on-the-job search by workers. Either reduced search costs or an increase in the probability of job matches can, under fairly general conditions, lower the value of deterring search and the use of DB pensions.


1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Cook

The fundamental objective of the Government's industrial relations policy is to encourage and assist Australian companies and their employees to adopt work and management practices that will strengthen their capacity to compete successfully both in domestic and international markets. To this end we support co-operative and equitable workplace bargaining, with wage increases being linked to the reform of work practices and attitudes. Our support for decentralised bargaining is aimed at improving productivity by fostering a new workplace culture of striving for continuous improvement. We emphatically reject the view that such an outcome will be achieved by wholesale deregulation and reliance on unfettered market forces. The Government is committed, for both equity and efficiency reasons, to maintaining the Accord approach to wages policy. We are also committed to an independent Australian Industrial Relations Commission playing the vital role of protecting lower paid employees through the safety net of minimum award wages and conditions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1294-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Acocella ◽  
Giovanni Di Bartolomeo ◽  
Patrizio Tirelli

This paper offers a reinterpretation of the Fed's time-varying implicit inflation target, based on two considerations. The first is that the need to alleviate the burden of distortionary taxation may justify the choice of a positive inflation rate. The second is based on compelling evidence that the degree of price and wage indexation falls with trend inflation. In fact, we find that a proper characterization of the joint evolution of fiscal variables and nominal rigidities has a strong impact on the Ramsey optimal policies, implying optimal inflation dynamics that are consistent with the observed evolution of U.S. trend inflation. By contrast, tax policies have been too lax, especially at the time of the controversial Bush tax cuts.


1998 ◽  
Vol 108 (448) ◽  
pp. 646-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Thomas
Keyword(s):  

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