IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wdi/papers/2001-384.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Institutional Determinants of Labor Reallocation in Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Tito Boeri
  • Katherine Terrell

Abstract

Studying the transition means analyzing the interactions between institutions and structural change, a process we still know very little about. In this paper we show that the transition process has been very different in the countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and those of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in terms of reallocation of labor from the old to the new sector, the extent of real wage decline and responsiveness of employment to output changes. We sift through the theoretical and empirical literature to find an explanation for these diverging adjustment trajectories and conclude that the difference can be explained in part by different policy models. The CEE countries adopted social policies that upheld wages at the bottom of the distribution and hence forced the unproductive old sector to restructure or collapse. The FSU countries allowed wages to free fall and hence did not force the hand of the old sector. Why these two models were adopted is the subject for political-economy research, however we speculate that it has to do with the relative appeal of joining the EU.

Suggested Citation

  • Tito Boeri & Katherine Terrell, 2001. "Institutional Determinants of Labor Reallocation in Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 384, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2001-384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39768/3/wp384.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sorm, Vit & Terrell, Katherine, 2000. "Sectoral Restructuring and Labor Mobility: A Comparative Look at the Czech Republic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 431-455, September.
    2. Daniel Munich & Jan Svejnar & Katherine Terrell, 1998. "Worker-Firm Matching and Unemployment in Transition to a Market Economy: (Why) Were the Czechs More Successful than Others?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 107, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    3. Daniel Münich & Jan Svejnar & Katherine Terrell, 2005. "Returns to Human Capital Under The Communist Wage Grid and During the Transition to a Market Economy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 100-123, February.
    4. Alan B. Krueger & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1995. "A Comparative Analysis of East and West German Labor Markets: Before and After Unification," NBER Chapters,in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 405-446 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Giuseppe BERTOLA & Tito BOERI & Sandrine CAZES, 2000. "Employment protection in industrialized countries: The case for new indicators," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 139(1), pages 57-72, March.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters,in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Huitfeldt, Henrik, 2001. "Unemployment, Labour Market Programmes and Wage Determination: Evidence from the Czech and Slovak Republics," Working Paper Series 2001:1, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    8. Kluve, Jochen & Lehmann, Hartmut & Schmidt, Christoph M., 1999. "Active Labor Market Policies in Poland: Human Capital Enhancement, Stigmatization, or Benefit Churning?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 61-89, March.
    9. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, December.
    10. Richard Layard & Andrea Richter, 1995. "How much unemployment is needed for restructing: the Russian experience," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(1), pages 39-58, March.
    11. Atkinson,Anthony Barnes & Micklewright,John, 1992. "Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521433297, October.
    12. Flanagan, Robert J., 1998. "Were communists good human capitalists? The case of the Czech Republic," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 295-312, September.
    13. Earle, John S. & Sakova, Zuzana, 2000. "Business start-ups or disguised unemployment? Evidence on the character of self-employment from transition economies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 575-601, September.
    14. Boeri, Tito & Flinn, Christopher J., 1999. "Returns to Mobility in the Transition to a Market Economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 4-32, March.
    15. Terrell, Katherine & Sorm, Vit, 1999. "Labor Market Policies and Unemployment in the Czech Republic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 33-60, March.
    16. Thesia I. Garner & Katherine Terrell, 1998. "A Gini decomposition analysis of inequality in the Czech and Slovak Republics during the transition," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 6(1), pages 23-46, May.
    17. Huitfeldt, H., 2001. "Unemployment, Labour Market Programmes and Wage Determination: Evidence from the Czech and Slovak Republics," Papers 2001:01, Uppsala - Working Paper Series.
    18. Castanheira, Micael & Roland, Gerard, 2000. "The Optimal Speed of Transition: A General Equilibrium Analysis," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 219-239, February.
    19. Boeri, Tito, 1997. "Learning from Transition Economies: Assessing Labor Market Policies across Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 366-384, December.
    20. Mark C. Foley, 1997. "Labor Market Dynamics in Russia," Working Papers 780, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    21. Vodopivec, Milan & Worgotter, Andreas & Raju, Dhushyanth, 2003. "Unemployment benefit systems in Central and Eastern Europe : a review of the 1990s," Social Protection and Labor Policy and Technical Notes 26307, The World Bank.
    22. Foley, M.C., 1997. "Labor Market Dynamics in Russia," Papers 780, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
    23. Pietro Garibaldi & Zuzana Brixiova, 1998. "Labor Market Institutions and Unemployment Dynamics in Transition Economies," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 45(2), pages 269-308, June.
    24. Bellmann Lutz & Estrin Saul & Lehmann Hartmut & Wadsworth Jonathan, 1995. "The Eastern German Labor Market in Transition: Gross Flow Estimates from Panel Data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 139-170, April.
    25. Patrick A. Puhani, 2000. "Poland on the dole: The effect of reducing the unemployment benefit entitlement period during transition," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 13(1), pages 35-44.
    26. Boeri, Tito & Scarpetta, Stefano, 1996. "Regional mismatch and the transition to a market economy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 233-254, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    transition economies; labor reallocation; institutions; wages;

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • P3 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions

    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:wdi:papers:2001-384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (WDI). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/wdumius.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.