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Do Large Employers Pay More in Developing Countries? The Case of Five African Countries

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Author Info
Strobl, Eric () (CORE, Catholic University of Louvain and IZA Bonn)
Thornton, Robert (Lehigh University)

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Abstract

Using comparable data sets for five African countries we estimate, and evaluate possible explanations for, the employer size wage effect across these. Our results indicate, just as has been generally found for other developing and developed nations, that apart from observable worker characteristics most potential theories cannot explain very much of the wage premium received in larger firms. Moreover, we find that the employer size wage effect does not differ greatly across the five African countries. Like other developing nations it is, however, larger than that found in the industrialised world, and, unlike the industrialised world, larger for white than blue collar workers. Additionally, data for one of the African countries in conjunction with other tentative evidence suggests that this may in part be because skill biased technology affects the firm size wage distribution across skill groups in developing countries more.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 660.

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Length: 46 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2002
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp660

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Related research
Keywords: employer size wage effect; Cameroon; Ghana; Kenya; Zambia; Zimbabwe;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
O1 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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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. Kremer, Michael, 1993. "The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 108(3), pages 551-75, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Josef Zweimuller, 1999. "Firm-Size Wage Differentials in Switzerland: Evidence from Job-Changers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 89-93, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Kremer, M. & Maskin, E., 1995. "Segregation by Skill and the Rise in Inequality," Papers e-95-7, Stanford - Hoover Institution.
  4. Albaek, Karsten & Arai, Mahmood & Asplund, Rita & Barth, Erling & Strojer Madsen, Erik, 1998. "Measuring wage effects of plant size," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 425-448, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. 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)
  6. Schaffner, Julie Anderson, 1998. "Premiums to employment in larger establishments: evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 81-113, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70, pages 9. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Schmidt, Christoph M & Zimmermann, Klaus F, 1991. "Work Characteristics, Firm Size and Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 705-10, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Doms, Mark & Dunne, Timothy & Troske, Kenneth R, 1997. "Workers, Wages, and Technology," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 253-90, February.
  10. Miguel Marcelle & Eric Strobl, 2003. "Do Smaller Firms Pay Less in the Caribbean? The Case of Trinidad and Tobago," The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 39(5), pages 181-198, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1974. "Alternative Theories of Wage Determination and Unemployment in LDC'S: The Labor Turnover Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 194-227, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Oi, Walter Y. & Idson, Todd L., 1999. "Firm size and wages," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 33, pages 2165-2214 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," NBER Working Papers 2870, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Evans, David S. & Leighton, Linda S., 1987. "Why do Smaller Firms Pay Less?," Working Papers 87-19, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Barron, John M & Black, Dan A & Loewenstein, Mark A, 1987. "Employer Size: The Implications for Search, Training, Capital Investment, Starting Wages, and Wage Growth," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 76-89, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Abigail Barr & Pieter Serneels, 2004. "Wages and Reciprocity in the Workplace," Development and Comp Systems 0409064, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Måns Söderbom & Francis Teal & Anthony Wambugu, 2004. "Does firm size really affect earnings?," Development and Comp Systems 0409011, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Marcel Fafchamps & Måns Söderbom, 2004. "Wages and Labor Management in African Manufacturing," Development and Comp Systems 0409043, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Görg, Holger & Strobl, Eric & Walsh, Frank, 2002. "Why Do Foreign-Owned Firms Pay More? The Role of On-the-Job Training," IZA Discussion Papers 590, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Måns Söderbom & Francis Teal, 2004. "Size and Efficiency in African Manufacturing Firms:Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data," Development and Comp Systems 0409010, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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