scholarly journals Comparative Political Economy of Wage Distribution: The Role of Partisanship and Labour Market Institutions

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONAS PONTUSSON ◽  
DAVID RUEDA ◽  
CHRISTOPHER R. WAY

Through a pooled cross-section time-series analysis of the determinants of wage inequality in sixteen OECD countries from 1973 to 1995, we explore how political-institutional variables affect the upper and lower halves of the wage distribution. Our regression results indicate that unionization, centralization of wage bargaining and public-sector employment primarily affect the distribution of wages by boosting the relative position of unskilled workers, while the egalitarian effects of Left government operate at the upper end of the wage hierarchy, holding back the wage growth of well-paid workers. Further analysis shows that the differential effects of government partisanship are contingent on wage-bargaining centralization: in decentralized bargaining systems, Left government is associated with compression of both halves of the wage distribution.

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-249
Author(s):  
Nils Witte

Abstract Wage inequality continued to increase through the 1990s and 2000s in post-industrial economies. This article contributes to the debate on occupations and inequality by assessing the role of occupational segregation and occupational closure for understanding the increase in inequality. Using employee data for West Germany in 1992 and 2012 and based on decompositions of unconditional quantile regressions the article investigates the contribution of changes in both occupational characteristics to changes in the wage structure. Our findings suggest that both the employment increase in more closed occupations and increased rewards in these occupations have contributed to wage increases across the distribution, especially in the lower half of the wage distribution. Our results further suggest disproportional wage increases in female-dominated occupations at the bottom of the distribution and disproportional wage decreases in male-dominated occupations at the top. If these occupational characteristics had remained at 1992 levels, then 90/10 wage inequality would have been 25 per cent higher in 2012. Thus, changes in occupational characteristics have contributed to wage compression in the observation period.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-82
Author(s):  
Paul Garcia Hinojosa

Over the past two decades, the downward trend of income inequality in Brazil has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the real value of the minimum wage. There is no empirical consensus on whether the minimum wage has an equalizing effect on income distribution because of its ambiguous effects on employment. I document the effectiveness of the minimum wage on compressing wage inequality throughout the wage distribution and its effects on employment by using Brazilian regional data over the post-inflationary period (1995-2015). A counterfactual exercise shows that half of the decline in lower-tail inequality is attributable to the increase in the real minimum wage whereas the effects of the minimum wage on upper-tail inequality are negligible. Furthermore, the increase in the minimum wage has small contemporaneous adverse effects on formal employment which appear to vanish after three quarters.JEL classification: E24Keywords: wage inequality, employment, minimum wage.


Author(s):  
Xudong Weng ◽  
Peter Rez

In electron energy loss spectroscopy, quantitative chemical microanalysis is performed by comparison of the intensity under a specific inner shell edge with the corresponding partial cross section. There are two commonly used models for calculations of atomic partial cross sections, the hydrogenic model and the Hartree-Slater model. Partial cross sections could also be measured from standards of known compositions. These partial cross sections are complicated by variations in the edge shapes, such as the near edge structure (ELNES) and extended fine structures (ELEXFS). The role of these solid state effects in the partial cross sections, and the transferability of the partial cross sections from material to material, has yet to be fully explored. In this work, we consider the oxygen K edge in several oxides as oxygen is present in many materials. Since the energy window of interest is in the range of 20-100 eV, we limit ourselves to the near edge structures.


2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade Jacoby ◽  
Martin Behrens

Our purpose in this article is to analyze changes in the German wagebargaining system, a system that has attracted enormous attentionfrom scholars of comparative political economy and comparativeindustrial relations. We argue that the wage bargaining portion ofthe German model is neither frozen in place, headed for deregulation,nor merely “muddling through.” Rather, we see the institutionalcapacities of the key actors—especially the unions and employerassociations—making possible a process we term “experimentalism.”In briefest form, experimentalism allows organizations that combinedecentralized information-gathering abilities with centralized decision-making capacity to probe for new possibilities, which, oncefound, can be quickly diffused throughout the organization. We willshow that the capacity for such experimentalism varies across actorsand sectors. And, to make things even tougher, neither major Germansocial actor can sustain innovation in the longer term withoutbringing along the other “social partner.”


The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate the returns to education of rural and urban labour markets workers in Tamil Nadu using the IHDS data with appropriate Econometric models. First, the present study estimated the earning functions of the rural and urban market's workers by OLS technique and standard Mincerian earning functions. Secondly, the quantile regression method was also used to examine the evolution of wage inequality. The findings of the study showed that the effects of education and experience on the log of hourly wages were positive, and these coefficients were statistically significant. The returns to education increased with the level of education and differed among the workers of rural and urban labour markets. The results showed that the rates of returns to primary, middle and higher secondary were higher in the urban market, whereas those of secondary and graduation were higher in the rural market. The study revealed that the effect of education was not the same across the rural and urban wage distribution. The rate of returns differed considerably within education groups across different quantiles of the wage distribution.


Author(s):  
Georg Menz

This new and comprehensive volume invites the reader on a tour of the exciting subfield of comparative political economy. The book provides an in-depth account of the theoretical debates surrounding different models of capitalism. Tracing the origins of the field back to Adam Smith and the French Physiocrats, the development of the study of models of political-economic governance is laid out and reviewed. Comparative Political Economy (CPE) sets itself apart from International Political Economy (IPE), focusing on domestic economic and political institutions that compose in combination diverse models of political economy. Drawing on evidence from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan, the volume affords detailed coverage of the systems of industrial relations, finance, welfare states, and the economic role of the state. There is also a chapter that charts the politics of public and private debt. Much of the focus in CPE has rested on ideas, interests, and institutions, but the subfield ought to take the role of culture more seriously. This book offers suggestions for doing so. It is intended as an introduction to the field for postgraduate students, yet it also offers new insights and fresh inspiration for established scholars. The Varieties of Capitalism approach seems to have reached an impasse, but it could be rejuvenated by exploring the composite elements of different models and what makes them hang together. Rapidly changing technological parameters, new and more recent environmental challenges, demographic change, and immigration will all affect the governance of the various political economy models throughout the OECD. The final section of the book analyses how these impending challenges will reconfigure and threaten to destabilize established national systems of capitalism.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Redmond ◽  
Karina Doorley ◽  
Seamus McGuinness

Abstract We use distribution regression analysis to study the impact of a 6% increase in the Irish minimum wage on the distribution of hourly wages and household income. Wage inequality, measured by the ratio of wages in the 90th and 10th percentiles and the 75th and 25th percentiles, decreased by approximately 8 and 4%, respectively. The results point towards wage spillover effects up to the 30th percentile of the wage distribution. We show that minimum wage workers are spread throughout the household income distribution and are often located in high-income households. Therefore, while we observe strong effects on the wage distribution, the impact of a minimum wage increase on the household income distribution is quite limited.


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