TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lipsey,Robert E.
AU  - Swedenborg,Birgitta
TI  - Wage Dispersion and Country Price Levels
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6039
PY  - 2000
Y2  - March 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6039
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6039.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert E. Lipsey
NBER
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5318
New York, NY 10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7961
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: N/A user is deceased

Birgitta Swedenborg
Center for Business and Policy Studies
Studieförbundet Näringsliv och Samhälle
Box 5629
S-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel:  46-8-50 70 25 68
E-Mail: birgitta.swedenborg@sns.se
M1  - published as Robert E. Lipsey, Birgitta Swedenborg. "Wage Dispersion and Country Price Levels," in Alan Heston and Robert E. Lipsey, editors, "International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Output, and Prices" University of Chicago Press (1999)

AB  - The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether there is a relationship between the degree of wage dispersion in a country and its price level relative to other countries, compared in a common currency.  It was found that once a country's real per capita income and deviations of its exchange rate from its trend value are allowed for, there is a pervasive relationship between wage dispersion and prices.  Low wage dispersion, defined as a relatively small difference between the median wage and that of the lowest paid decile of workers, is associated with high price levels.  The relationship applies more frequently to service prices than to goods prices, but where it does apply, the effects of wage dispersion are as large for goods as for services.
ER  -