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Downward nominal wage flexibility: real or measurement error?

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Author Info
Peter Gottschalk () (Boston College)

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Abstract

This paper presents a new method to correct for measurement error in wage data and applies this method to address an old question. How much downward wage flexibility is there in the U.S? We apply standard methods developed by Bai and Perron (1998b) to identify structural breaks in time series data. Applying these methods to wage histories allows us to identify when each person experienced a change in nominal wages. The length of the period of constant nominal wages is left unrestricted and is allowed to differ across individuals, as is the size and direction of the nominal wage change. We apply these methods to data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The evidence we provide indicates that the probability of a cut in nominal wages is substantially overstated in data that is not corrected for measurement error.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Boston College Department of Economics in its series Boston College Working Papers in Economics with number 534.

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Length: 33 pages
Date of creation: 15 May 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:534

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Related research
Keywords: Nominal wage rigidity; measurement error;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Brown, James N & Light, Audrey, 1992. "Interpreting Panel Data on Job Tenure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 219-57, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David Card & Dean Hyslop, 1996. "Does Inflation "Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market"?," NBER Working Papers 5538, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Keane, Michael P, 1993. "Nominal-Contracting Theories of Unemployment: Evidence from Panel Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 932-52, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Bound, John & Krueger, Alan B, 1991. "The Extent of Measurement Error in Longitudinal Earnings Data: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. George A. Akerlof & William R. Dickens & George L. Perry, 1996. "The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1996-1), pages 1-76. [Downloadable!]
  6. Kahn, Shulamit, 1997. "Evidence of Nominal Wage Stickiness from Microdata," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 993-1008, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Bound, John, et al, 1994. "Evidence on the Validity of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Labor Market Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(3), pages 345-68, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Shea, John, 1995. "Union Contracts and the Life-Cycle/Permanent-Income Hypothesis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 186-200, March.
  9. Blinder, Alan S & Choi, Don H, 1990. "A Shred of Evidence on Theories of Wage Stickiness," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 1003-15, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Joseph G. Altonji & Paul J. Devereux, 1999. "The Extent and Consequences of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity," NBER Working Papers 7236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. McLaughlin, Kenneth J., 1994. "Rigid wages?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 383-414, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 2003. "Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 1-22. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Perron, P. & Bai, J., 1995. "Estimating and Testing Linear Models with Multiple Structural Changes," Cahiers de recherche 9552, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Thomas Heckel & Hervé Le Bihan & Jérémi Montornès, 2008. "Sticky wages. Evidence from quarterly microeconomic data," Working Paper Series 893, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Patrick Lünnemann & Ladislav Wintr, 2009. "Wages are flexible, aren’t they? Evidence from monthly micro wage data," Working Paper Series 1074, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Mark Gertler & Luca Sala & Antonella Trigari, 2008. "An Estimated Monetary DSGE Model with Unemployment and Staggered Nominal Wage Bargaining," Working Papers 341, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Christian Haefke & Marcus Sonntag & Thijs van Rens, 2007. "Wage Rigidity and Job Creation," Economics Working Papers 1047, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Aug 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Mark Gertler & Antonella Trigari, 2006. "Unemployment fluctuations with staggered Nash wage bargaining," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Carlos Thomas, 2006. "Search and Matching Frictions and Optimal Monetary Policy," CEP Discussion Papers dp0743, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Pierpaolo Benigno & Luca Antonio Ricci, 2009. "The Inflation-Unemployment Trade-off at Low Inflation," IMF Working Papers 09/34, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Kai Christoffel & Keith Kuester, 2008. "Resuscitating the wage channel in models with unemployment fluctuations," Working Paper Series 923, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Michael W. L. Elsby, 2005. "Evaluating the Economic Significance of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity," CEP Discussion Papers dp0704, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  10. William T. Dickens & Lorenz Goette & Erica L. Groshen & Steinar Holden & Julian Messina & Mark E. Schweitzer & Jarkko Turunen & Melanie Ward, 2006. "The interaction of labor markets and inflation: analysis of micro data from the International Wage Flexibility Project," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
  11. Jorge M. Streb, 2006. "Job market signals and signs," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 326, Universidad del CEMA. [Downloadable!]
  12. Keith Kuester, 2007. "Real price and wage rigidities in a model with mataching frictions," Working Paper Series 720, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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