Estimating a Wage Curve for Britain 1973-1990 / David G. Blanchflower, Andrew J. Oswald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blanchflower, David G.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Oswald, Andrew J.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w4770.

NBER working paper series no. w4770

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Phillips curve.

Wages--Econometric models.

Wages.

Unemployment--Regional disparities.

Unemployment.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1994.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1994.

Summary:

Following Phillip's original work on the UK, applied research on unemployment and wages has been dominated by the analysis of highly aggregated time-series data sets. However, it has proved difficult with such methods to uncover statistically reliable models. This paper adopts a different approach. It uses microeconomic data on 175,000 British workers from 1973-1990 to provide evidence for the existence of a negatively sloped relationship linking the level of pay to the local rate of unemployment. This 'wage curve' is found to have an elasticity of approximately -0.1. Contrary to the Phillips Curve, no autoregression is found in wages. The paper casts doubt on standard ideas in macroeconomics, regional economics and labour economics.

Notes:

Print version record

June 1994.