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Wage Inequality as a Source of Endogenous Macroeconomic Fluctuations

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  • Jaylson Jair da Silveira
  • Gilberto Tadeu Lima

Abstract

There is extensive evidence on both the endogeneity of labor productivity to the wage remuneration and the persistence of wage inequality across observationally similar workers and firms. The paper builds an evolutionary micro-dynamic model having these two features of the labor market as interconnected, and explores the ensuing implications for the macro-dynamics of the distribution of income, capacity utilization and output growth. Firms periodically revise (and possibly switch) their choice of remunerating workers with a higher or lower wage, and the resulting labor productivity differential across workers is endogenous to the distribution of wage remuneration strategies across firms. The long run features wage inequality as a persistent outcome. Moreover, plausibly low levels of wage inequality suffice to cause the distribution of wage remuneration strategies across firms, and therefore the distribution of income, capacity utilization and output growth, all to experience self-sustaining cyclical fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaylson Jair da Silveira & Gilberto Tadeu Lima, 2019. "Wage Inequality as a Source of Endogenous Macroeconomic Fluctuations," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2019_46, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
  • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2019wpecon46
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage inequality; evolutionary micro-dynamics; distribution of income; capacity utilization; output growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium

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