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Reservation Wages: Explaining Some Puzzling Regional Patterns

Author

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  • Paolo Sestito
  • Eliana Viviano

Abstract

We use the Italian Labour Force Survey and the European Household Panel Survey to analyse the distribution of the reservation wages reported by jobseekers. In Italy, reservation wages appear to be higher in the South - the low income and high unemployment area of the country - than in the North and Centre. A similar, rather counterintuitive, pattern, however, can also be found in Finland, France and Spain. First, we show that the way in which these data are commonly collected generates double selection bias. Second, we show that this bias has a strong effect on the estimation of the geographical pattern of reservation wages in many countries. The size of this bias is substantial in Italy. When controlling for it, reservation wages are 10 per cent higher in the North and Centre than in the South.
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Suggested Citation

  • Paolo Sestito & Eliana Viviano, 2011. "Reservation Wages: Explaining Some Puzzling Regional Patterns," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 25(1), pages 63-88, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:25:y:2011:i:1:p:63-88
    DOI: j.1467-9914.2010.00508.x
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2010.00508.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah Brown & Gurleen Popli & Alessandro Sasso, 2022. "Decomposing the gender reservation wage gap in Italy: A regional perspective," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 499-540, March.
    2. Kawata, Keisuke & Nakajima, Kentaro & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2016. "Multi-region job search with moving costs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 114-129.
    3. Kristina Nyström & Gulzat Zhetibaeva Elvung, 2015. "New Firms as Employers: The Wage Penalty for Voluntary and Involuntary Job Switchers," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(4), pages 348-366, December.
    4. Khurshid Alam & Sakiba Tasneem & Molla Huq, 2014. "Reservation wage of female volunteer community health workers in Dhaka urban slums: a bidding game approach," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. repec:wrk:warwec:991 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Antonio Accetturo & Luigi Infante, 2013. "Skills or culture? An analysis of the decision to work by immigrant women in Italy," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Somaya Ahmed Aly Abdel-Mowla, 2012. "Females’ Off-the-Job Search Methods in Egypt: Formal versus Informal Search Methods," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 1(1), pages 21-42, June.
    8. John T. Addison & José A. F. Machado & Pedro Portugal, 2013. "The Reservation Wage Unemployment Duration Nexus," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(6), pages 980-987, December.
    9. Gutknecht, Daniel, "undated". "Do Reservation Wages Decline Monotonically? A Novel Statistical Test," Economic Research Papers 270635, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    10. Humpert, Stephan & Pfeifer, Christian, 2013. "Explaining age and gender differences in employment rates : a labor supply side perspective," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 46(1), pages 1-17.
    11. Brugiavini, Agar, 2009. "Welfare reforms and labour supply in Italy," Working Paper Series 2009:29, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    12. Fiorentino, Elisabetta & Vincenzo, Alessio De & Heid, Frank & Karmann, Alexander & Koetter, Michael, 2009. "The effects of privatization and consolidation on bank productivity: comparative evidence from Italy and Germany," Discussion Paper Series 2: Banking and Financial Studies 2009,03, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    13. World Bank, 2014. "Tunisia : Breaking the Barriers to Youth Inclusion [Tunisie - Surmonter les obstacles a l'inclusion des jeunes]," World Bank Publications - Reports 20693, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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