IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v14y2002i3p293-311.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reworking the Wage Curve: Exploring the consistency of the model across time, space and demographic group

Author

Listed:
  • Heather Boushey

Abstract

This paper extends Blanchflower & Oswald's (1994) work on the wage curve to the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The wage curve is more elastic in US metropolitan areas than prior research shows for the nation as a whole, and the wage curve varies over the business cycle, becoming more elastic in periods of higher unemployment. The most striking finding is that black workers have a more elastic wage curve than do white workers. Estimating the wage curve with the non-employment rate, a measure of underemployment, shows elasticities that are substantially higher than for wage curves estimated with the unemployment rate. This trend further increases the negative effects on pay for blacks, who are more likely than white workers to be underemployed.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Boushey, 2002. "Reworking the Wage Curve: Exploring the consistency of the model across time, space and demographic group," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 293-311.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:14:y:2002:i:3:p:293-311
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250220147859
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250220147859
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250220147859?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 1995. "The Wage Curve," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202375x, December.
    2. Groot Wim & Mekkelholt Eddie & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1992. "Further evidence on the wage curve," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 355-359, March.
    3. David Card, 1995. "The Wage Curve: A Review," Working Papers 722, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    4. Richard B. Freeman, 1990. "Employment and Earnings of Disadvantaged Young Men in a Labor Shortage Economy," NBER Working Papers 3444, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Thomas Hyclak & James Stewart, 1995. "Racial differences in the unemployment response to structural changes in local labor markets," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 29-42, June.
    6. Murphy, Kevin M & Topel, Robert H, 1997. "Unemployment and Nonemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 295-300, May.
    7. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 1995. "The Wage Curve," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202375x, March.
    8. James Tobin, 1993. "Poverty in Relation to Macroeconomic Trends, Cycles, and Policies," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1030R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    9. Harry J. Holzer & Michael A. Stoll, 2003. "Employer Demand for Welfare Recipients by Race," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 210-241, January.
    10. David Card, 1995. "The Wage Curve: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 285-299, June.
    11. Bratsberg, Bernt & Turunen, Jarkko, 1996. "Wage curve evidence from panel data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 345-353, June.
    12. Charles T. Carlstrom & Christy D. Rollow, 1998. "Regional variations in white-black earnings," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 34(Q II), pages 10-22.
    13. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 1996. "Wage curve, unemployment duration and compensating differentials," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 425-434, December.
    14. Riddell, W Craig, 1981. "Contemporaneous Correlation in Wage Contract Studies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(2), pages 515-516, March.
    15. Kloek, T, 1981. "OLS Estimation in a Model Where a Microvariable Is Explained by Aggregates and Contemporaneous Disturbances Are Equicorrelated," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(1), pages 205-207, January.
    16. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, 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. Simonetta Longhi & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2006. "Spatial Heterogeneity And The Wage Curve Revisited," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 707-731, October.
    2. Badi H. Baltagi & Bartlomiej Rokicki & Kênia Barreiro Souza, 2017. "The Brazilian wage curve: new evidence from the National Household Survey," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 267-286, August.
    3. Baltagi, Badi H. & Rokicki, Bartlomiej, 2014. "The spatial Polish wage curve with gender effects: Evidence from the Polish Labor Survey," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 36-47.
    4. Esteban Sanroma & Raul Ramos, 2005. "Further Evidence on Disaggregated Wage Curves: The Case of Spain," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 8(3), pages 227-243, September.
    5. Mark Partridge & Dan Rickman, 2010. "Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Modelling for Regional Economic Development Analysis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1311-1328.
    6. Julie L. Hotchkiss & M. Melinda Pitts, 2007. "Evidence of demand factors in the determination of the labor market intermittency penalty," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2007-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    7. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2005. "The Wage Curve Reloaded," NBER Working Papers 11338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Haci Mevlut Karatas, 2017. "The Turkish Spatial Wage Curve," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Guilherme Cemin Paula & André M. Marques, 2022. "Brazilian Wage Curve: Further Evidence Based on Spatial Interactions in Times of Recession, 2012–2019," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 689-708, September.

    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. Kåre Johansen, 2002. "Regional Wage Curves Empirical Evidence from Norway," Working Paper Series 0302, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    2. Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2005. "The Last Word on the Wage Curve?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 421-450, July.
    3. Baltagi, Badi H. & Blien, Uwe, 1998. "The German wage curve: evidence from the IAB employment sample," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 135-142, November.
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2005. "The Wage Curve Reloaded," NBER Working Papers 11338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Buscher, Herbert S., 2003. "Gibt es eine Lohnkurve in den neuen Bundesländern? (Is there a wage curve in eastern German?)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 461-475.
    6. Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna & Turunen, Jarkko, 2006. "The euro area wage curve," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 93-98, July.
    7. Buscher, Herbert S., 2003. "Gibt es eine Lohnkurve in den neuen Bundesländern? (Is there a wage curve in eastern German?)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 461-475.
    8. Víctor M. Montuenga‐Gómez & José M. Ramos‐Parreño, 2005. "Reconciling the Wage Curve and the Phillips Curve," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 735-765, December.
    9. Konyalı, Gonca, 2012. "Wage Curve Evidence From Turkey’s 2007-2009 Income and Living Conditions Survey," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 24, pages 199-210.
    10. Esteban Sanroma Melendez & Raul Ramos Lobo, 2003. "Wage curves for Spain. Evidence from the family budget survey," Working Papers in Economics 101, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    11. Barth, Erling & Bratsberg, Bernt & Naylor, Robin A. & Raaum, Oddbjørn, 2002. "Explaining Variations in Wage Curves: Theory and Evidence," Memorandum 03/2002, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    12. Wouter Vermeulen & J. van Ommeren, 2006. "Compensation of regional unemployment in housing markets," CPB Discussion Paper 57, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    13. Ramos, Raul & Duque, Juan C. & Surinach, Jordi, 2010. "Is the wage curve formal or informal? Evidence for Colombia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 63-65, November.
    14. Ammermueller, Andreas & Kuckulenz, Anja & Zwick, Thomas, 2009. "Aggregate unemployment decreases individual returns to education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 217-226, April.
    15. Marisa Carla Bucheli Anaya & Cecilia González Rodríguez-Villamil, 2012. "An estimation of the wage curve for Uruguay," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, June.
    16. Iara, Anna & Traistaru, Iulia, 2004. "How flexible are wages in EU accession countries?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 431-450, August.
    17. Sergio Destefanis & Giovanni Pica, 2010. "It’s wages, it’s hours, it’s the Italian wage curve," CSEF Working Papers 247, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    18. Hynninen, Sanna-Mari, 2009. "Is there a wage curve for the highly educated?," ISER Working Paper Series 2009-17, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Elhorst, J. Paul & Blien, Uwe & Wolf, Katja, 2002. "A spatial panel approach to the east German wage curve," ERSA conference papers ersa02p444, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Lili Kang & Fei Peng, 2017. "Wage flexibility in the Chinese labour market, 1989–2009," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 616-628, April.

    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:taf:revpoe:v:14:y:2002:i:3:p:293-311. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    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.