The Wage Curve

   (227 K)

   (183 K)

This paper, which follows in an LSE tradition begun by Phillips and Sargan, examines the role of unemployment in shaping pay. In contrast to most of the literature, it 1) uses microeconometric data on individuals and workplaces 2) examines a variety of data sets as a check on the robustness of results, and 3) studies the effects of unemployment on the real wage level (not on the rate of change of pay or prices) . The paper finds evidence - on British and US data - of a wage curve. The curve has a negative gradient at low levels of unemployment, but becomes horizontal at relatively high levels of unemployment.

Published:

• The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 215-235, 1990. ,
• David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 1995. "The Wage Curve," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202375x, April.

This paper is available as PDF (227 K) or DjVu (183 K) (Download viewer) or via email.

Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX