IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0306.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Efficient Wage Bargains Under Uncertain Supply and Demand

Author

Listed:
  • Robert E. Hall
  • David M. Lilien

Abstract

Much recent thought has been devoted to the macroeconomic importance of the existence of wage contracts. Still, some puzzling features of the most conspicuous form of wage bargaining, that done formally by employers and labor unions, deserve further theoretical attention. Among these important features are: 1. Collective bargaining agreements are rarely contingent on outside events even though the parties have very imperfect knowledge of prospective economic conditions during the period of the contract. The only important exception is the indexing of wages to the cost of living. 2. Employers are permitted wide discretion in determining the level of employment when demand shifts unexpectedly. As employment varies, total compensation varies according to a formula established in the agreement. 3. Agreements are not permanent but are renegotiated on a regular cycle. 4. In the process of renegotiation, the current state of demand has little impact on the new wage schedule. On the other hand, current wages in other industries have an important influence. This feature especially has been denied or ignored by economic theorists even though it is a prominent part of the thinking of labor economists on wage determination.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert E. Hall & David M. Lilien, 1978. "Efficient Wage Bargains Under Uncertain Supply and Demand," NBER Working Papers 0306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0306
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0306.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brunner, Karl & Meltzer, Allan H., 1977. "Stabilization of the domestic and international economy," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 1-6, January.
    2. Martin S. Feldstein, 1975. "The Importance of Temporary Layoffs: An Empirical Analysis," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 6(3), pages 725-745.
    3. Robert E. Hall, 1975. "The Rigidity of Wages and the Persistence of Unemployment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 6(2), pages 301-350.
    4. Azariadis, Costas, 1975. "Implicit Contracts and Underemployment Equilibria," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(6), pages 1183-1202, December.
    5. repec:bla:scandj:v:79:y:1977:i:2:p:187-209 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Fischer, Stanley, 1977. "Long-Term Contracts, Rational Expectations, and the Optimal Money Supply Rule," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(1), pages 191-205, February.
    7. Barro, Robert J., 1977. "Long-term contracting, sticky prices, and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 305-316, July.
    8. Phelps, Edmund S., 1977. "Indexation issues: A comment on the blinder and Fischer papers," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 149-168, January.
    9. Martin Neil Baily, 1974. "Wages and Employment under Uncertain Demand," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(1), pages 37-50.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1001-1035 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Gordon, Robert J, 1982. "Why U.S. Wage and Employment Behaviour Differs from That in Britain and Japan," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(365), pages 13-44, March.
    3. V.V. Chari, 1980. "Involuntary Unemployment and Implicit Contracts," Discussion Papers 459, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    4. H. Osano & T. Inoue, 1988. "Testing Between Competing Models of Business Cycles: The Efficient Long-Term Contract Hypothesis Versus the Intertemporal Substitution Hypothesis," Discussion Papers 768, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    5. Gordon, Robert J, 1977. "The Theory of Domestic Inflation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 128-134, February.
    6. Abowd, John M & Card, David, 1987. "Intertemporal Labor Supply and Long-term Employment Contracts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(1), pages 50-68, March.
    7. Jean-Pascal Bénassy, 2006. "Dynamic models with non clearing markets," Working Papers halshs-00590433, HAL.
    8. Russell Cooper, 1984. "Expansionary Government Policy in an Economy with Commodity and Labor," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 727, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    9. Ahrens, Steffen & Pirschel, Inske & Snower, Dennis J., 2014. "A theory of wage adjustment under loss aversion," Kiel Working Papers 1977, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    10. Christian Calmès, 2003. "La poignée de main invisible et la persistance des cycles d’affaires : un survol," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 79(4), pages 563-581.
    11. Alogoskoufis, George & Malliaris, A.G. & Stengos, Thanasis, 2023. "The scope and methodology of economic and financial asymmetries," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    12. Michael D. Bradley & Dennis W. Jansen, 1989. "Understanding nominal GNP targeting," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Nov, pages 31-40.
    13. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2007. "Unemployment And Hours Of Work: The North Atlantic Divide Revisited," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(1), pages 1-36, February.
    14. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2009. "The Unemployment Volatility Puzzle: Is Wage Stickiness the Answer?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1339-1369, September.
    15. John C. Ham & Kevin T. Reilly, 2002. "Testing Intertemporal Substitution, Implicit Contracts, and Hours Restriction Models of the Labor Market Using Micro Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 905-927, September.
    16. Jonathan B. Ratner & Jeff Frank, 1982. "Sectoral Labor Markets, the Long-Run Phillips Curve, and Implicit Contracts," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 127-136, Apr-Jun.
    17. Card, David, 1986. "Efficient Contracts with Costly Adjustment: Short-run Employment Determination for Airline Mechanics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1045-1071, December.
    18. A. Steven Holland, 1984. "The impact of inflation uncertainty on the labor market," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 66(Aug), pages 21-28.
    19. Matthew B. Canzoneri & Anne C. Sibert, 1984. "The macroeconomic implications of labor contracting with asymmetric information," International Finance Discussion Papers 248, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Douglas G. Waldo, 1980. "Sticky nominal wages and the optimal employment rule," International Finance Discussion Papers 155, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    21. Plassard, Romain, 2021. "Barro, Grossman, and the domination of equilibrium macroeconomics," MPRA Paper 107201, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0306. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.