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Wage indexation and the monetary policy regime

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  • De Schryder, Selien
  • Peersman, Gert
  • Wauters, Joris

Abstract

We estimate a New Keynesian wage Phillips curve for a panel of 24 OECD countries and allow the degree of wage indexation to past inflation to vary according to structural characteristics. We find that the degree of wage indexation is significantly lower for countries with an inflation target. However, this effect vanishes when we control for the degree of goods market competition. By contrast, more goods market competition is consistently associated with lower wage indexation. This robust finding puts into question whether embedding a constant degree of wage indexation in standard DSGE models is truly structural.

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  • De Schryder, Selien & Peersman, Gert & Wauters, Joris, 2020. "Wage indexation and the monetary policy regime," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0164070418304786
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2019.103166
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    Cited by:

    1. Gabriel, Ricardo Duque, 2023. "Monetary policy and the wage inflation-unemployment tradeoff," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Carrillo, Julio A. & Peersman, Gert & Wauters, Joris, 2022. "Endogenous wage indexation and aggregate shocks," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Antonia López-Villavicencio & Sophie Saglio, 2017. "The Wage Inflation-Unemployment Curve at the Macroeconomic Level," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(1), pages 55-78, February.
    4. Patrizio Tirelli & Maria Ferrara, 2020. "Disinflation, Inequality, And Welfare In A Tank Model," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(3), pages 1297-1313, July.
    5. Donayre, Luiggi & Panovska, Irina, 2016. "Nonlinearities in the U.S. wage Phillips curve," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 19-43.
    6. Donayre, Luiggi & Panovska, Irina, 2018. "U.S. wage growth and nonlinearities: The roles of inflation and unemployment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 273-292.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage indexation; Monetary policy regimes; Cross-country panel; Phillips curve;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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