International Wage Curves

44 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2007 Last revised: 25 Dec 2022

See all articles by David G. Blanchflower

David G. Blanchflower

Dartmouth College - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); University of Stirling - Department of Economics

Andrew J. Oswald

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: October 1992

Abstract

The paper provides evidence for the existence of a negatively sloped locus linking the level of pay to the rate of regional (or industry) unemployment. This "wage curve" is estimated using microeconomic data for Britain, the US, Canada, Korea, Austria, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, and Germany, The average unemployment elasticity of pay is approximately -0.1. The paper sets out a multi-region efficiency wage model and argues that its predictions are consistent with the data.

Suggested Citation

Blanchflower, David G. and Oswald, Andrew J., International Wage Curves (October 1992). NBER Working Paper No. w4200, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1010435

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