Wage Controls and Employment in a Socialist Economy

26 Pages Posted: 15 Feb 2006

See all articles by Timothy Lane

Timothy Lane

International Monetary Fund (IMF) - Policy Development and Review Department

Date Written: November 1991

Abstract

Wage controls have been an important element of several of the stabilization programs recently introduced in reforming socialist economies. In some cases, the controls have been placed on each state enterprise`s total wage bill, rather than on the wage rate paid. Such an incomes policy would be expected to have a dampening effect on employment, but this has not generally occurred; on the contrary, declines in employment in state enterprises have typically been much less than the associated declines in output. This paper presents a simple model of a labor-managed enterprise which offers an explanation of the behavior of wages and employment under such an incomes policy.

JEL Classification: J23, J38, P31

Suggested Citation

Lane, Timothy, Wage Controls and Employment in a Socialist Economy (November 1991). IMF Working Paper No. 91/111, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=885134

Timothy Lane (Contact Author)

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