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Do unit labour costs matter? A decomposition exercise on European data

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  • Piton, Sophie

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

From the introduction of the euro up to the 2008 global financial crisis, macroeconomic imbalances widened among Member States. This divergence took the form of strong differences in the dynamics of unit labour costs. This paper asks why this happened. Is it the result of distortionary public spending, or the consequence of economic integration? To answer this question, this paper builds a theoretical framework that provides a decomposition of the growth in unit labour costs into various effects of economic integration and policy intervention. Using a novel dataset, it then measures the contribution of each effect in 12 countries of the euro area from 1995 to 2015. Results show that the process of economic integration was an important driver of increasing unit labour costs in peripheral economies before the global financial crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Piton, Sophie, 2019. "Do unit labour costs matter? A decomposition exercise on European data," Bank of England working papers 799, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0799
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    Cited by:

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    2. Davin, Marion & Gente, Karine & Nourry, Carine, 2018. "How crucial are preferences for non-tradable goods and cross-country sectoral TFP gap for integration?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 166-181.
    3. Thomas Grjebine & Jérôme Hericourt & Fabien Tripier, 2019. "Sectoral reallocations, real estate shocks and productivity divergence in Europe: a tale of three countries," Post-Print hal-02501064, HAL.
    4. Claire Giordano, 2023. "Revisiting the real exchange rate misalignment‐economic growth nexus via the across‐sector misallocation channel," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1329-1384, September.
    5. Florian Morvillier, 2018. "On the impact of the launch of the euro on EMU macroeconomic vulnerability," Working Papers hal-04141675, HAL.
    6. Florian Morvillier, 2020. "Robustness of the Balassa-Samuelson effect: evidence from developing and emerging economies," EconomiX Working Papers 2020-18, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    7. Niels Gilbert & Sebastiaan Pool, 2020. "Sectoral allocation and macroeconomic imbalances in EMU," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(4), pages 945-984, November.
    8. Ivens, Annika, 2018. "Fiscal devaluation in the Euro area: The role of rigidities, non-tradables, and social security contributions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 62-81.
    9. Florian Morvillier, 2018. "On the impact of the launch of the euro on EMU macroeconomic vulnerability," EconomiX Working Papers 2018-51, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic integration; productivity; structural change; non-tradable sector; macroeconomic imbalances; capital flows; growth accounting; euro area;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • F45 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Macroeconomic Issues of Monetary Unions
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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