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Individual heterogeneity and interindustry wage differentials

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Michael P. Keane

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Abstract

Estimates of interindustry wage differentials are obtained using a fixed-effects estimator on a long panel, the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men (NLS). After controlling for observable worker characteristics, 84 percent of the residual variance of log wages across industries is explained by individual fixed-effects. Only 16 percent of the residual variance is “explained” by industry dummies. Since no controls for specific job characteristics are used, job characteristics that vary across industries could potentially explain this rather small residual across-industry log wage variance that is not attributable to individual effects. Clearly then, these data do not force us to resort to noncompetitive explanations of interindustry wage differentials, such as efficiency wage theory. Furthermore, efficiency wage theories predict that wages in efficiency wage paying (or primary) industries should be relatively rigid. Therefore, industry wage differentials should widen in recessions. However, no such tendency is found in the data.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in its series Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics with number 54.

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Date of creation: 1991
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmem:54

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Keywords: Wages;

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Breusch, Trevor S & Mizon, Grayham E & Schmidt, Peter, 1989. "Efficient Estimation Using Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(3), pages 695-700, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Lang, Kevin & Kahn, Shulamit, 1990. "Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment: A Second View," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 296-306, April.
  3. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-44, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Freeman, Richard B, 1984. "Longitudinal Analyses of the Effects of Trade Unions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Keane, Michael & Moffitt, Robert & Runkle, David, 1988. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Estimating the Impact of Heterogeneity with Micro Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(6), pages 1232-66, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Krueger, Alan B & Summers, Lawrence H, 1988. "Efficiency Wages and the Inter-industry Wage Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 259-93, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1985. "Equilibrium Wage Distribution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(379), pages 595-618, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Robert E. Hall, 1975. "The Rigidity of Wages and the Persistence of Unemployment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 6(1975-2), pages 301-350. [Downloadable!]
  9. Lilien, David M, 1982. "Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(4), pages 777-93, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Solow, Robert M., 1979. "Another possible source of wage stickiness," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 79-82. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Wachter, Michael L, 1970. "Cyclical Variation in the Interindustry Wage Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 75-84, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz, 1987. "Inter-Industry Wage Differences and Theories of Wage Determination," NBER Working Papers 2271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Akerlof, George A & Yellen, Janet L, 1985. "A Near-rational Model of the Business Cycle, with Wage and Price Intertia," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 823-38, Supp.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(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. Ingo Geishecker & John P. Haisken-DeNew, 2002. "Riding the Transition Roller-Coaster: Flexibility and the Inter-Industry Wage Structure in Russia," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 280, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  2. Samuel G. Berlinski, 2000. "Contracting-out and the Interindustry Wage Structure: Do Norms of Internal Equity Matter in Wage Determination?," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1053, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  3. Andy Dickerson & Francis Green & Jorge Saba Arbache, 2001. "Trade Liberalization and the Returns to Education: A Pseudo-panel Approach," Studies in Economics 0114, Department of Economics, University of Kent. [Downloadable!]
  4. Thomas J. Kniesner & W. Kip Viscusi & Christopher Woock & James P. Ziliak, 2006. "Pinning Down the Value of Statistical Life," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 85, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Pi-Fem Hsu, 2005. "Inter-industry wage premiums and industry-specific productivity in Taiwan," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(13), pages 1523-1533, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Roy Wada & Erdal Tekin, 2007. "Body Composition and Wages," NBER Working Papers 13595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Alan Carruth & Bill Collier & Andy Dickerson, 1999. "Inter-industry Wage Differences and Individual Heterogeneity: How Competitive is Wage Setting in the UK?," Studies in Economics 9914, Department of Economics, University of Kent. [Downloadable!]
  8. Thomas J. Kniesner & W. Kip Viscusi & Christopher Woock & James P. Ziliak, 2005. "How Unobservable Productivity Biases the Value of a Statistical Life," NBER Working Papers 11659, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Donghoon Lee & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2004. "Intersectoral Labor Mobility and the Growth of the Service Sector," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-036, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. V. Bhaskar & Alan Manning & Ted To, 2002. "Oligopsony and Monopsonistic Competition in Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 155-174, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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