IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/scandj/v112y2010i1p211-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wage Formation and Bargaining Power during the Great Depression

Author

Listed:
  • Gunnar Bårdsen
  • Jurgen A. Doornik
  • Jan Tore Klovland

Abstract

We present an econometric analysis of wage behaviour in Norway during the interwar years. The analysis is based on a panel of manufacturing industry data using GMM estimation methods. Our empirical analysis shows that wage formation in the interwar period can be understood with the help of modern bargaining theory and well‐established wage equations. We estimate a long‐run wage curve that has all the standard features of being homogeneous in prices, proportional to productivity, and with a negative unemployment elasticity. We also present some new Monte Carlo evidence on the properties of the estimators used.

Suggested Citation

  • Gunnar Bårdsen & Jurgen A. Doornik & Jan Tore Klovland, 2010. "Wage Formation and Bargaining Power during the Great Depression," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(1), pages 211-233, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:112:y:2010:i:1:p:211-233
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01599.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01599.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01599.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Torberg Falch, 2001. "Decentralized Public Sector Wage Determination: Wage Curve and Wage Comparison for Norwegian Teachers in the Pre‐WW2 Period," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 15(3), pages 343-369, September.
    2. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173, Decembrie.
    3. Bardsen, Gunnar, 1989. "Estimation of Long Run Coefficients in Error Correction Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(3), pages 345-350, August.
    4. Nymoen, Ragnar, 1989. "Modelling Wages in the Small Open Economy: An Error-Correction Model of Norwegian Manufacturing Wages," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(3), pages 239-258, August.
    5. Eichengreen, Barry & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1985. "Exchange Rates and Economic Recovery in the 1930s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(4), pages 925-946, December.
    6. Wulfsberg, Fredrik, 1997. "An Application of Wage Bargaining Models to Norwegian Panel Data," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 419-440, July.
    7. Broadberry, S N, 1986. "Aggregate Supply in Interwar Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 467-481, June.
    8. Bernanke, Ben S, 1986. "Employment, Hours, and Earnings in the Depression: An Analysis of EightManufacturing Industries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 82-109, March.
    9. Klovland, J.T., 1999. "Accounting for Productivity Growth in Norwegian Manufacturing Industries 1927-1959," Papers 21/99, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration-.
    10. Lawrence F. Katz & Olivier Blanchard, 1999. "Wage Dynamics: Reconciling Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 69-74, May.
    11. Nymoen, Ragnar & Rodseth, Asbjorn, 2003. "Explaining unemployment: some lessons from Nordic wage formation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, February.
    12. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    13. Hanes, Christopher, 1996. "Changes in the Cyclical Behavior of Real Wage Rates, 1870–1990," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-861, December.
    14. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    15. Boswijk, Peter, 1993. "On the Formulation of Wald Tests on Long-Run Parameters," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 55(1), pages 137-144, February.
    16. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    17. Moulton, Brent R., 1986. "Random group effects and the precision of regression estimates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 385-397, August.
    18. Hatton, T J, 1988. "A Quarterly Model of the Labour Market in Interwar Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, February.
    19. Anders Forslund & Nils Gottfries & Andreas Westermark, 2008. "Prices, Productivity and Wage Bargaining in Open Economies," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(1), pages 169-195, March.
    20. Johansen, Kare, 1995. "Norwegian Wage Curves," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(2), pages 229-247, May.
    21. Kare Johansen, 1999. "Insider forces in wage determination: new evidence for Norwegian industries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 137-147.
    22. Johansen, Kare, 1996. "Insider Forces, Asymmetries, and Outsider Ineffectiveness: Empirical Evidence for Norwegian Industries 1966-87," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 89-104, January.
    23. Klovland, Jan T., 1998. "Monetary policy and business cycles in the interwar years: The Scandinavian experience," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 309-344, December.
    24. Dimsdale, N H & Nickell, Stephen J & Horsewood, N, 1989. "Real Wages and Unemployment in Britain during the 1930s," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(396), pages 271-292, June.
    25. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    26. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bertil Holmlund, 2013. "Wage and employment determination in volatile times: Sweden 1913-1939," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 7(2), pages 131-159, May.
    2. Ragnar Nymoen, 2017. "Between Institutions and Global Forces: Norwegian Wage Formation Since Industrialisation," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-54, January.

    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. Gunnar Bårdsen & Jurgen Doornik & Jan Tore Klovland, 2004. "A European-type wage equation from an American-style labor market: Evidence from a panel of Norwegian manufacturing industries in the 1930s," Working Paper 2004/4, Norges Bank.
    2. Gunnar Bårdsen & Jurgen Doornik & Jan Tore Klovland, 2000. "A Wage Curve for the Interwar Labour Market: Evidence from a Panel of Norwegian Manufacturing Industries," Working Paper Series 1802, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, revised 15 Apr 2001.
    3. Kåre Johansen, 2002. "Regional Wage Curves Empirical Evidence from Norway," Working Paper Series 0302, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    4. Fredrik Carlsen & Kåre Johansen & Knut RØed, 2006. "Wage Formation, Regional Migration and Local Labour Market Tightness," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 68(4), pages 423-444, August.
    5. Marc van der Steeg & Roel van Elk & Dinand Webbink, 2012. "Does intensive coaching reduce school dropout?," CPB Discussion Paper 224.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    6. Kees Folmer, 2009. "Why do macro wage elasticities diverge?," CPB Memorandum 224.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. 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.
    8. Marjan Petreski & Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski, 2013. "Real Wages in the Manufacturing Industry in Macedonia: The Role of Macroeconomic Factors, with Reference to Recession Times," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 113-126, January.
    9. Jason Lennard, 2023. "Sticky wages and the Great Depression: evidence from the United Kingdom," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 27(2), pages 196-222.
    10. José María ARRANZ & Carlos GARCÍA SERRANO & Virginia HERNANZ, 2013. "Active labour market policies in Spain: A macroeconomic evaluation," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(2), pages 327-348, June.
    11. Dobbelaere, Sabien & Kiyota, Kozo & Mairesse, Jacques, 2015. "Product and labor market imperfections and scale economies: Micro-evidence on France, Japan and the Netherlands," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 290-322.
    12. Bertil Holmlund, 2013. "Wage and employment determination in volatile times: Sweden 1913-1939," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 7(2), pages 131-159, May.
    13. Kåre Johansen, "undated". "Nonlinear Wage Responses to Internal and External Factors," Working Paper Series 0902, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, revised 25 Aug 2002.
    14. Heid, Benedikt & Larch, Mario, 2012. "Migration, trade and unemployment," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-40.
    15. Forslund, Anders & Gottfries, Nils & Westermark, Andreas, 2005. "Real and nominal wage adjustment in open economies," Working Paper Series 2005:23, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    16. Nikolay Archak & Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis, 2011. "Deriving the Pricing Power of Product Features by Mining Consumer Reviews," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(8), pages 1485-1509, August.
    17. Karl BRENKE & Ulf RINNE & Klaus F. ZIMMERMANN, 2013. "Short-time work: The German answer to the Great Recession," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(2), pages 287-305, June.
    18. Timothy J. Hatton & Mark Thomas, 2010. "Labour markets in the interwar period and economic recovery in the UK and the USA," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 463-485, Autumn.
    19. Kees Folmer, 2009. "Why do macro wage elasticities diverge?," CPB Memorandum 224, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    20. Hayk Karapetyan, 2017. "Cross-Country Wage Differentials," Working Papers 7, Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia.

    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:scandj:v:112:y:2010:i:1:p:211-233. 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: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9442 .

    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.