There are two findings that are conspicuous in almost all studies of individual wage determination. First, standard cross-section wage equations rarely account for more than half of the total variance in earnings between individuals. Second, there are large and persistent inter-industry wage differentials and these are frequently attributed to non-competitive forces in wage determination. This paper explores these two issues using cross-section, pooled and panel data drawn from the first six waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We show that much of the residual variation in wages can be explained by significant unobserved differences between workers, perhaps reflecting innate ability or other characteristics of individuals not captured by observed data. Moreover, our wage equations explain a substantial proportion of the variation in earnings between individuals in terms of their observed and unobserved characteristics, and we find only a small role for job characteristics and almost no role for industry affiliation once we allow for unobserved individual heterogeneity. One interpretation of our findings is that wages are determined principally by individual characteristics - as human capital theory presupposes - rather than by compensating differentials or by non-competitive factors.
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Kent in its series Studies in Economics with number
9914.
Length: Date of creation: Dec 1999 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:9914
Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NP Phone: +44 (0)1227 764000 Fax: +44 (0)1227 827850 Web page: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/economics/
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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.:
Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J & Garrett, Mario D, 1990.
"Insider Power in Wage Determination,"
Economica,
London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 57(226), pages 143-70, May.
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