IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecr/v35y2002i1p70-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Relative Wage Change in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Webster
  • Yi‐Ping Tseng

Abstract

This article uses data from 3500 Australian workers to investigate which factors have had a significant influence on microeconomic wage growth over the years 1997 to 2000. The relative importance of four types of factors—outside incomes, demand for labour, workers' relative bargaining strength and category of wage contract—are compared. Basic individual demographic characteristics and some indicators of workers' bargaining power provided most of the explanation for wage changes. Proxy variables for labour demand, while significant and correctly signed, were small in magnitude.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Webster & Yi‐Ping Tseng, 2002. "The Determinants of Relative Wage Change in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 35(1), pages 70-84, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:35:y:2002:i:1:p:70-84
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.00224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.00224
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-8462.00224?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Gregory & Francis G. Vella, 1995. "Real Wages, Employment, and Wage Dispersion in U.S. and Australian Labor Markets," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 205-226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jeff Borland, 1996. "Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes and Causes," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 05, McMaster University.
    3. Kirby, Michael G, 1981. "An Investigation of the Specification and Stability of the Australian Aggregate Wage Equation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 57(156), pages 35-46, March.
    4. Withers, Glenn & Pitman, D & Whittingham, B, 1986. "Wage Adjustments and Labour Market Systems: A Cross-Country Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 62(179), pages 415-426, December.
    5. Yi-Ping Tseng & Mark Wooden, 2001. "Enterprise Bargaining and Productivity: Evidence from the Business Longitudinal Survey," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2001n08, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Steve Dowrick, 1993. "Enterprise Bargaining, Union Structure and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(4), pages 393-404, December.
    7. Nickell, S & Vainiomaki, J & Wadhwani, S, 1994. "Wages and Product Market Power," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 61(244), pages 457-473, November.
    8. Jeff Borland & Roger Wilkins, 1996. "Earnings Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(216), pages 7-23, March.
    9. Nickell, Stephen & Kong, Paul, 1992. "An investigation into the power of insiders in wage determination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1573-1599, December.
    10. Michael G. Kirby, 1981. "An Investigation of the Specification and Stability of the Australian Aggregate Wage Equation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 57(1), pages 35-46, March.
    11. Creedy, John & McDonald, Ian M, 1991. "Models of Trade Union Behaviour: A Synthesis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 67(199), pages 346-359, December.
    12. Hieser, R O, 1970. "Wage Determination with Bilateral Monopoly in the Labour Market: A Theoretical Treatment," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 46(113), pages 55-72, March.
    13. Dowrick, Steve, 1993. "Enterprise Bargaining, Union Structure and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(207), pages 393-404, December.
    14. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J & Garrett, Mario D, 1990. "Insider Power in Wage Determination," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 57(226), pages 143-170, May.
    15. John E King, 1997. "Critical Notes on Labour Market Deregulation," Working Papers 1997.07, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    16. Mumford, Karen & Dowrick, Steve, 1994. "Wage Bargaining with Endogenous Profits, Overtime Working and Heterogeneous Labor," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 329-336, May.
    17. Bewley, Truman F., 1998. "Why not cut pay?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 459-490, May.
    18. Keating, Michael, 1983. "Relative Wages and the Changing Industrial Distribution of Employment in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 59(167), pages 384-397, December.
    19. Young, Allyn A., 1928. "Increasing Returns and Economic Progress," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 38, pages 527-542.
    20. Trevor Stegman, 1997. "Implications for Wages Policy in Australia of the Living Wage Case," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 8(1), pages 143-155, June.
    21. G. Withers & D. Pitman & B. Whittingham, 1986. "Wage Adjustments and Labour Market Systems: A Cross‐Country Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 62(4), pages 415-426, December.
    22. R. O. Hieser, 1970. "Wage Determination with Bilateral Monopoly in the Labour Market: A Theoretical Treatment," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 46(1), pages 55-72, March.
    23. Miller, Paul & Mulvey, Charles, 1996. "Unions, Firm Size and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(217), pages 138-153, June.
    24. Jonathan Hamberger, 1995. "Individual Contracts What Do They Mean for Australia?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 6(2), pages 288-299, December.
    25. Paul Miller & Paul Miller & Charles Mulvey, 1996. "Unions, Firm Size and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(217), pages 138-151, June.
    26. Allan Fels & Tran Van Hoa, 1981. "Causal Relationships in Australian Wage Inflation and Minimum Award Rates," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 57(1), pages 23-34, March.
    27. Fels, Allan & Tran, Van Hoa, 1981. "Causal Relationships in Australian Wage Inflation and Minimum Award Rates," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 57(156), pages 23-34, March.
    28. John E King, 1997. "Critical Notes on Labour Market Deregulation," Working Papers 1997.07, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    29. Sue Fernie & David Metcalf, 1995. "Participation, Contingent Pay, Representation and Workplace Performance: Evidence from Great Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 379-415, September.
    30. JOHN CREEDY & IAN M. McDONALD, 1991. "Models of Trade Union Behaviour: A Synthesis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 67(4), pages 346-359, December.
    31. Trevor Stegman, 1999. "On the Role of Regulation in Union - Employer Bargaining," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 10(1), pages 92-106, June.
    32. Jeff Borland & Anthony Suen, 1990. "The Ddeterminants of Individual Wages in Australia: Competitive and Non‐Competitive Influences," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 23(4), pages 33-44, December.
    33. Michael Keating, 1983. "Relative Wages and the Changing Industrial Distribution of Employment in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 59(4), pages 384-397, December.
    34. Iain Campbell & Peter Brosnan, 1999. "Labour Market Deregulation in Australia: The slow combustion approach to workplace change," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 353-394.
    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. Julia Müller & Thorsten Upmann, 2013. "Centralised Labour Market Negotiations," CESifo Working Paper Series 4470, CESifo.
    2. Michael Coelli & Jerome Fahrer & Holly Lindsay, 1994. "Wage Dispersion and Labour Market Institutions: A Cross Country Study," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9404, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    3. Thorsten Upmann & Julia Müller, 2014. "The Structure of Firm-Specific Labour Unions," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 170(2), pages 336-364, June.
    4. 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.
    5. Andrew Charlton, 2003. "Nominal Wage Rigidity in The Australian Labour Market: Evidence from household Data," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 25-36, March.
    6. John Freebairn, 1998. "Microeconomics of the Australian Labour Market," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Guy Debelle & Jeff Borland (ed.),Unemployment and the Australian Labour Market, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Erkki Koskela & Ronnie Schöb, 2002. "Alleviating Unemployment: The Case for Green Tax Reforms," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 20, pages 355-378, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Daniel Cardona & Fernando Sánchez-Losada, 2004. "The Unemployment Benefit System: a Redistributive or an Insurance Institution?," DEA Working Papers 8, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    9. Bhalotra, Sonia., 2003. "The impact of economic liberalization on employment and wages in India," ILO Working Papers 993650543402676, International Labour Organization.
    10. Koskela, E. & Stenbacka, R., 2000. "Compensation and Bargaining with Entrepreneurship as the Outside Option," University of Helsinki, Department of Economics 479, Department of Economics.
    11. Maarten Goos & Jozef Konings, 2001. "Does Rent-Sharing Exist in Belgium ?. An Empirical Analysis Using Firm Level Data," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 65-79.
    12. John Freebairn, 1995. "Reconsidering the Marginal Welfare Cost of Taxation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 71(2), pages 121-131, June.
    13. Mark Wooden, 2001. "Union Wage Effects in the Presence of Enterprise Bargaining," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 77(236), pages 1-18, March.
    14. Lixin Cai & Amy Y.C. Liu, 2008. "Public-Private Wage Gap in Australia: Variation Along the Distribution," CEPR Discussion Papers 581, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Sabien Dobbelaere & Jacques Mairesse, 2010. "Comparing Micro-evidence on Rent Sharing from Three Different Approaches," NBER Working Papers 16220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Dhillon, Amrita & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2001. "Profit-sharing, bertrand competition and monopoly unions : a note," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 612, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    17. Rod Tyers, 2015. "Service Oligopolies and Australia's Economy-Wide Performance," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 48(4), pages 333-356, December.
    18. Xinxin Ma & Ichiro Iwasaki, 2021. "Does communist party membership bring a wage premium in China? a meta-analysis," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 55-94, January.
    19. H. Naci Mocan & Deborah Viola, 1997. "The Determinants of Child Care Workers' Wages and Compensation: Sectoral Differences, Human Capital, Race, Insiders and Outsiders," NBER Working Papers 6328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Bayindir-Upmann, Thorsten & Raith, Matthias G., 2003. "Should high-tax countries pursue revenue-neutral ecological tax reforms?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 41-60, February.

    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:bla:ausecr:v:35:y:2002:i:1:p:70-84. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.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.