Pensions and Wage Premia

Edward Montgomery, Kathryn Shaw

NBER Working Paper No. 3985
Issued in February 1992
NBER Program(s):   LS

In this paper we use that the theory of compensating differentials to identify sources of heterogeneity in firms' costs of providing fringe benefits and hence heterogeneity in the magnitude of the compensating differential. We estimate the relationship between pensions and wages controlling for variations in the size of the compensating differential related to firm size or the presence of a union. Both firm size and unionism are commonly associated with the payment of wage premia and/or the presence of market power where the costs of fringe benefits to the firm may be less. Our results are consistent with these a priori expectations and suggest that the magnitude of the compensating differential is significantly higher in nonunion and in small firms.

(249 K)

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Published: Montgomery, Edward and Kathryn Shaw. "Pensions And Wage Premia," Economic Inquiry, 1997, v35(3,Jul), 510-522.

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