[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/3365.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fear, Unemployment and Pay Flexibility

Author

Listed:
  • David G. Blanchflower
Abstract
The paper uses newly available cross-section data to study wage determination in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The results are contrasted with those from a comparable sample from the US from 1977-1988. 1) Fear of unemployment substantially depresses pay in both countries. 2) There is some evidence of a wage ratchet in the UK whereby rates of pay are more flexible upwards than downwards. 3) The unemployment elasticity of pay averages -0.1 in the UK and apparently zero in the US. 4) Wages are almost twice as flexible in non-union and small workplaces in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Blanchflower, 1990. "Fear, Unemployment and Pay Flexibility," NBER Working Papers 3365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3365
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w3365.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nash, John, 1953. "Two-Person Cooperative Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 21(1), pages 128-140, April.
    2. Ian M. McDonald & Robert M. Solow, 1985. "Wages and Employment in a Segmented Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(4), pages 1115-1141.
    3. Wachtel, Howard M & Betsey, Charles, 1972. "Employment at Low Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 54(2), pages 121-129, May.
    4. Carruth, Alan A & Oswald, Andrew J, 1987. "On Union Preferences and Labour Market Models: Insiders and Outsi ders," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(386), pages 431-445, June.
    5. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 1988. "Cooperation, Harassment, and Involuntary Unemployment: An Insider-Outsider Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 167-188, March.
    6. Jacob Mincer, 1962. "On-the-Job Training: Costs, Returns, and Some Implications," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 50-79, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. repec:bla:econom:v:53:y:1986:i:210(s):p:s121-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Olivier J. Blanchard & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Hysteresis and the European Unemployment Problem," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1986, Volume 1, pages 15-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Alan B. Krueger & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Reflections on the Inter-Industry Wage Structure," NBER Working Papers 1968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Chowdhury, Gopa & Nickell, Stephen, 1985. "Hourly Earnings in the United States: Another Look at Unionization, Schooling, Sickness, and Unemployment Using PSID Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 38-69, January.
    11. Begg, David & Lindbeck, Assar & Martin, Chris & Snower, Dennis, 1989. "Symmetric and asymmetric persistence of labor market shocks," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 554-577, December.
    12. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:197-225 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:525-602 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Louis N. Christofides & Andrew J. Oswald, 1989. "Real Wage Determinatioan in Collective BArgaining Agreements," NBER Working Papers 3188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Greenhalgh, Christine A, 1980. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Great Britain: Is Marriage an Equal Opportunity?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(363), pages 751-775, December.
    16. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 1986. "Wage Setting, Unemployment, and Insider-Outsider Relations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 235-239, May.
    17. Blanchard, Olivier J. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1987. "Hysteresis in unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 288-295.
    18. Holzer, Harry J & Montgomery, Edward B, 1993. "Asymmetries and Rigidities in Wage Adjustments by Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(3), pages 397-408, August.
    19. Ken Binmore & Ariel Rubinstein & Asher Wolinsky, 1986. "The Nash Bargaining Solution in Economic Modelling," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 176-188, Summer.
    20. Gottfries, Nils & Horn, Henrik, 1987. "Wage Formation and the Persistence of Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388), pages 877-884, December.
    21. Black, Jane M & Bulkley, I George, 1989. "Do Trade Unions Reduce Job Opportunities of Non-members?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 177-186, March.
    22. Bils, Mark J, 1985. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 666-689, August.
    23. Minford, Patrick, 1983. "Labour Market Equilibrium in an Open Economy," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(0), pages 207-244, Supplemen.
    24. Willis, Robert J., 1987. "Wage determinants: A survey and reinterpretation of human capital earnings functions," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 525-602, Elsevier.
    25. repec:bla:econom:v:51:y:1984:i:204:p:437-46 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Blanchflower, D. & Oswald, A., 1989. "Wages And House Prices: Cross-Section Evidence," Papers 345, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    27. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:411-28 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. D. Blanchflower, 1984. "Union Relative Wage Effects: A Cross Section Analysis Using Establishment Data," Working Papers 106, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    29. W. Rayack, 1987. "Sources and Centers of Cyclical Movement in Real Wages: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 3-21, September.
    30. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz, 1986. "Interindustry Wage Differences and Industry Characteristics," NBER Working Papers 2014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Blackaby, D H & Manning, D N, 1987. "Regional Earnings Revisited," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 55(2), pages 158-183, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blanchflower, D. & Oswald, A. & Garrett, M., 1988. "Insider Power In Wage Determination," Papers 319, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    2. Marco Guerrazzi, 2020. "Wage and employment determination in a dynamic insider–outsider model," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Dinand Webbink & Pierre Koning & Sunčica Vujić & Nicholas G. Martin, 2013. "Why Are Criminals Less Educated than Non-Criminals? Evidence from a Cohort of Young Australian Twins," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 115-144, February.
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 1995. "The Wage Curve," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202375x, April.
    5. Franz, Wolfgang, 1993. "Unvollkommene Arbeitsmärkte in makroökonomischen Modellen: Eine Übersicht," Discussion Papers 1, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    6. Springer, K.A., 1989. "Wage rigidity and the persistence of unemployment," Serie Research Memoranda 0041, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    7. Adriana Cassoni & Steven G. Allen & Gaston J. Labadie, 2004. "Unions and Employment in Uruguay," NBER Chapters, in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 435-496, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Hélène Zajdela, 1990. "Le dualisme du marché du travail : enjeux et fondements théoriques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 31-42.
    9. Adriana Cassoni, 1999. "Labour demand in Uruguay before and after re-unionisation," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0199, Department of Economics - dECON.
    10. Holzer, Harry J & Montgomery, Edward B, 1993. "Asymmetries and Rigidities in Wage Adjustments by Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(3), pages 397-408, August.
    11. Adriana Cassoni & Steven G. Allen & Gaston J. Labadie, 2000. "The Effect of Unions on Employment: Evidence from an Unnatural Experiment in Uruguay," NBER Working Papers 7501, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Muysken, J. & Zwick, Th., 1996. "Insider power breeds human capitalists," Research Memorandum 030, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    13. Anabela Carneiro & Pedro Portugal, 2004. "Market Power, Dismissal Threat, and Rent Sharing: the Role of Insider and Outsider Forces in Wage Bargaining," CEF.UP Working Papers 0403, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    14. Kai-Uwe Kuuhn & A. Jorge Padilla, 2002. "Union Power, Replacement and Labour Market Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(479), pages 317-343, April.
    15. Fung, K. C. & Lin, Chelsea C. & Maechler, Andrea M., 2003. "European Economic Integration and the Effectiveness of Employment Policies," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt0tp8k3c5, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    16. Fung, K.C. & C. Lin, Chelsea, 2005. "European Economic Integration and the Effectiveness of Employment Policies," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 20, pages 419-438.
    17. Jonathan P. Thomas, 2000. "Fair pay and a Wagebill Argument for Wage Rigidity and Excessive Employment Variability," Labor and Demography 0004004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Charles Bean & James Symons, 1989. "Ten Years of Mrs. T," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1989, Volume 4, pages 13-72, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Blanchard, Olivier Jean, 1991. "Wage Bargaining and Unemployment Persistence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(3), pages 277-292, August.
    20. George Alogoskoufis, 2018. "The Clash of Central Bankers with Labour Market Insiders, and the Persistence of Inflation and Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(337), pages 152-176, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3365. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.