Industry Wage Structure Research Articles

Cost economics in construction of multi storied buildings

India is fast moving forward from agrarian economy to Industrial Economy. Our country is considered to be a safe platform for industrial investment by the world. Global Leaders and very many MNCs (Multi-National Companies) are evincing keen interest in having Joint Venture or opening their manufacturing facility in India. India is witnessing a boom in industrialisation. This leads to vast employment opportunities to people of all walks of life. People are moving from rural areas to urban areas for occupational needs. This leads to mass arrival of people to city and consequently the rental costs also shoot up substantially. The industrial wage structure being reasonable with assured disposable income, people who prefer to stay in city start comparing rental costs versus paying EMI towards owning an apartment for themselves. The idea gets strong rooted with the easily available institutional finance to people, especially to youngsters with longer duration of EMI. All these result in a sustained demand for apartments. The builders, particularly in the city, are cashing in on the opportunity by embarking upon construction of multi storied buildings in the city and also the outskirts of same.

The Impact of Employment Protection on the Industrial Wage Structure

This paper tests whether the job security offered by stricter employment protection legislation (EPL) undermines positive compensating wage differentials that would otherwise be paid. Specifically, we ask whether industries with relatively more need for layoffs and labour flexibility have lower wages in countries where stricter EPL protects workers from layoffs. We find this generally to be true for a large sample of industries in the major OECD countries over 1984-2005, particularly for wages of unskilled workers. However, we also find that where workers are well organised, they can take advantage of EPL to secure higher wages.

Evolution of the Interindustry Wage Structure in China Since the 1980s

AbstractIndustry mean wages in China have exhibited sharply increased dispersion since the early1990s. Researchers have attributed this rising inequality within the industrial wage structure to: (i) increasingly competitive labour markets leading to better matches between worker pay, worker skills and employer demands; or (ii) residual government control in some industrial sectors that has generated high wages through monopoly rent sharing. We argue that the rise in China's industrial wage dispersion is primarily attributable to increasingly competitive labour markets, which have led to greater returns to schooling and to efficient redistribution of workers across major industry groups. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that the level or changes in government monopoly power has had negligible impact on China's rising industrial wage dispersion.

Evolution of the Industrial Wage Structure in China Since 1980

Industry mean wages in China have exhibited sharply increased dispersion since the early 1990, and the wage pattern has become increasingly similar to the that of developed countries and to two major emerging economies, Russia and Brazil. The upward trend in differences of average wages among major industry groups parallels increases in wage and income inequality throughout the Chinese economy. Research on the trend has attributed rising inequality to market forces leading to better matches between worker pay and worker skills; expansion of the share of employment in the non-government ownership sector; and/or residual government control in some industrial sectors that has generated high wages through monopoly rent sharing. We show that the industrial wage dispersion in China has evolved to match persistent and wide spread international patterns of industrial wage dispersion and that an increasing proportion of industrial wage dispersion is associated with the industrial distribution of and payments to observed worker characteristics.

Money and Happiness: Evidence from the Industry Wage Structure

There is a well-established positive correlation between life-satisfaction measures and income in individual level cross-sectional data. This paper attempts to provide some evidence on whether this correlation reflects causality running from money to happiness. I use industry wage differentials as instruments for income. This is based on the idea that at least part of these differentials are due to rents, and part of the pattern of industry affiliations of individuals is random. To probe the validity of these assumptions, I compare estimates for life satisfaction with those for job satisfaction, present fixed effects estimates, and present estimates for married women using their husbands' industry as the instrument. All these specifications paint a fairly uniform picture across three different data sets. IV estimates are similar to the OLS estimates suggesting that most of the association of income and well-being is causal.

Evolution of the Industrial Wage Structure in China Since 1980

ABSTRACT Evolution of the Industrial Wage Structure in China Since 1980 * Industry mean wages in China have exhibited sharply increased dispersion since the early 1990s. The upward trend in differences of average wages among major industry groups parallels increases in wage and income inequality not only between rural and urban sectors but within the urban economy as well. Research on the trend has focused on (1) how market forces have led to a better match between worker pay and worker skills; on (2a) how the growing share of employment in the private sector has “caused” growing wage inequality; and (2b) how residual government control in a few industrial sectors has contributed to wage inequality due monopoly rent sharing. We show that the industrial wage dispersion in China has evolved to match long-recognized international patterns of industrial wage dispersion and that an increasing proportion of industrial wage dispersion can be explained as returns to observed worker characteristics.

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence from India

AbstractWe evaluate empirically the impact of the dramatic 1991 trade liberalization in India on the industry wage structure. The empirical strategy uses variation in industry wage premiums and trade policy across industries and over time. In contrast to most earlier studies on developing countries, we find a strong, negative, and robust relationship between changes in trade policy and changes in industry wage premiums over time. The results are consistent with liberalization‐induced productivity increases at the firm level, which get passed on to industry wages. We also find that trade liberalization has led to decreased wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in India. This is consistent with the magnitude of tariff reductions being relatively larger in sectors with a higher proportion of unskilled workers.

Trade Protection and Industry Wage Structure in Poland

This study examines the impact of Poland's trade liberalization 1994-2001 on the industry wage structure. The liberalization was undertaken in preparation for Poland's accession to the European Union and was more pronounced in industries with larger shares of unskilled labour. Our analysis indicates that a decrease in an industry tariff was associated with higher wages being earned by workers employed in the industry, controlling for worker characteristics and geographic variables. The result is robust to including year and industry fixed effects, controlling for industry-level exports, imports, concentration, stock of foreign direct investment and capital accumulation. The finding is consistent with liberalization increasing competitive pressures, forcing firms to restructure and improve their productivity, which in turn translates into higher profits being shared with workers. It could also be potentially attributed to trade liberalization lowering the costs of imported inputs, which enhances firm profitability. The result holds when skilled workers are excluded from the sample, thus suggesting that reductions in trade barriers benefited the unskilled in terms of an increase in wages.

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence From India

We evaluate empirically the impact of the dramatic 1991 trade liberalization in India on the industry wage structure. The empirical strategy uses variation in industry wage premiums and trade policy across industries and over time. In contrast to earlier studies on developing countries, we find a strong, negative, and robust relationship between changes in trade policy and changes in industry wage premiums over time. The results are consistent with liberalization-induced productivity increases at the firm level, which get passed on to industry wages. Since tariff reductions were proportionately larger in sectors that employ a larger share of unskilled workers, the increase in wage premiums in these sectors implies that unskilled workers experienced an increase in their relative incomes. Thus, our findings suggest that trade liberalization has led to decreased wage inequality in India.

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence from India

We evaluate empirically the impact of the dramatic 1991 trade liberalization in India on the industry wage structure. The empirical strategy uses variation in industry wage premiums and trade policy across industries and over time. In contrast to earlier studies on developing countries, we find a strong, negative, and robust relationship between changes in trade policy and changes in industry wage premiums over time. The results are consistent with liberalization-induced productivity increases at the firm level, which get passed on to industry wages. Since tariff reductions were proportionately larger in sectors that employ a larger share of unskilled workers, the increase in wage premiums in these sectors implies that unskilled workers experienced an increase in their relative incomes. Thus, our findings suggest that trade liberalization has led to decreased wage inequality in India.

Industry-specific human capital, knowledge labour, and industry wage structure in Taiwan

This paper investigates the role of industry-specific human capital (ISHC) in determining industry wage structure. The model presented in this paper distinguishes between knowledge labour and physical labour. Knowledge labour is physical labour embodied with ISHC. It is postulated that more ISHC-intensive industries, such as high-tech industries, pay higher wages and the wage premiums increase with workers’ experience. The hypothesis is tested using a merged sample of 1997–1999 manpower utilization survey data from a newly industrialized economy—Taiwan. The findings show support for the effect of ISHC.

Trade Liberalization and Industry Wage Structure: Evidence from Brazil

Industry affiliation provides an important channel through which trade liberalization can affect worker earnings and wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. This empirical study of the impact of the 1988-94 trade liberalization in Brazil on the industry wage structure suggests that although industry affiliation is an important component of worker earnings, the structure of industry wage premiums is relatively stable over time. There is no statistical association between changes in industry wage premiums and changes in trade policy or between industry-specific skill premiums to university graduates and trade policy. Thus trade liberalization in Brazil did not significantly contribute to increased wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers through changes in industry wage premiums. The difference between these results and those obtained for other countries (such as Colombia and Mexico) provides fruitful ground for studying the conditions under which trade reforms do not have an adverse effect on industry wage differentials

Technical Change and the Wage Structure During the Second Industrial Revolution: Evidence from the Merchant Marine, 1865-1912

Using a large, individual-level wage data set, we examine the impact of a major technological innovation – the steam engine – on skill demand and the wage structure in the merchant shipping industry. We find that the technical change created a new demand for skilled workers, the engineers, while destroying demand for workers with skills relevant only to sail. It had a deskilling effect on production work – able-bodied seamen (essentially, artisans) were replaced by unskilled engine room operatives. On the other hand, mates and able-bodied seamen employed on steam earned a premium relative to their counterparts on sail. A wholesale switch from sail to steam would increase the 90/10 wage ratio by 40%, with most of the rise in inequality coming from the creation of the engineer occupation.

Inequality and Industrial Wage Change in Brazil

This paper focuses on two questions. First, how did inequality in the industrial wage structure of Brazil evolve from 1985 to 1995? Second, what is the relationship between these dynamics and economic policy? We display the evolution of wage inequality in Brazil and relate this evolution to changing macroeconomic conditions. Our analysis suggests that there is a strong relation between rising inequality and the restructuring of the Brazilian economy that occurred in the middle 1980’s.

Industry Wage Differentials Revisited: A Longitudinal Comparison of Germany and USA

In this paper, the inter-industry wage structure in West Germany and USA is compared using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the German Mikrozensus (MZ), the American Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the American Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1984 to 1996. Using a sample of prime age full-time employed males from the respective datasets, it is shown that the structure of wages has remained remarkably stable over this time period, and that the German structure resembles the American structure strongly. Cross-sectional and panel results are provided for both countries. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity in the random effects panel estimations reduces the industry wage dispersion by about half. Thus, although the MZ and the CPS provide very large sample sizes, panel data sets (although typically smaller in sample size) are still very important in getting at the essence of the industry wage structure and the absolute level of industry wage dispersion. In calculating inter-industry wage differentials as deviations from a hypothetical employment-share weighted mean, we use the methodology as described in Haisken-DeNew and Schmidt (1997) of calculating exact differentials and their respective standard errors.

Wage change and trade performace in US manufacturing industries

This paper presents empirical measurement of wage contours in US industry, 1959-88, applying cluster analysis to the path of change of average hourly wages. We define six principal industrial clusters and present simple wage-change equations for each cluster. A series of tests shows that the 'rules of the economic game' differ across our industrial groups: industrial structure matters to wage outcomes. Finally, we present the evolving relationship between relative wage levels and the comparative trade performance of the clusters. The results suggest a strong association between trade performance and the evolving industrial wage structure, contrary to the findings of some other recent studies. We conclude that the reclassification of industrial data along lines specific to the problem being studied is an important analytical step, whose neglect in previous work has led some researchers to understate the influence of industrial structure and trade pressures on wages. (c) 1996 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.

Industry wage differentials and efficiency wages: A dissenting view with South African evidence

Does industry wage dispersion constitute evidence of either efficiency wages or rent sharing? Comparison of the industry wage premia of whites and Africans in South Africa casts doubt upon the rent extraction and the gift exchange explanations of the industry wage structure. Unions, combined with union threats, fail to explain the data. Other explanations (unobserved ability, compensating differentials, and the shirking/monitoring and turnover models) are rejected here, as they have been before. Remaining possibilities are expense preference theory and internal equity rules. Implications for future research are pointed out.

Recent developments in the industrial wage structure of the UK

This study analyzes the stability of the industrial wage structure using unpublished New Earnings Survey data. The analysis distinguishes between the impact of various workforce characteristics on wage structure and evaluates the stability of that structure using four different pay measures. Different pay measures reveal different degrees of flexibility but this is seldom enough to change the ranking of industries. The analysis reveals that the wage structure is more stable for women than men and that some industries are consistently high payers while others are consistently low payers. Further analysis of industry relative pay reveals this to be affected by changes in the proportions of women, blue collar and experienced workers employed in each industry. (c) 1993 Academic Press, Inc. Copyright 1993 by Oxford University Press.

Efficiency Wages and the Inter-Industry Wage Structure

This paper empirically tests and rejects classical competitive theories of wage determination by examining differences in wages for equally skilled workers across industries. Human capital earnings functions are estimated using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the CPS and QES. The major finding is that the dispersion in wages across industries as measured by the standard deviation in industry wage differentials is substantial. Furthermore, F tests of the joint significance of industry dummy variables are decisively rejected. These differences are very difficult to link to unobserved differences in ability or to compensating differentials for working conditions. Fixed effects models are estimated using two longitudinal data sets to control for constant, unmeasured worker characteristics that might bias cross-sectional estimates. Because measurement error is a serious problem in looking at workers who report changing industries, we use estimates of industry classification error rates to adjust the longitudinal results. In the fixed effects analysis, the industry wage differentials are sizable and are very similar to the cross-sectional estimates. In addition, the fixed effects estimates are robust under a variety of assumptions about classification errors and are similar using both data sets. These findings cast doubt on explanations of industry wage differentials based on unmeasured ability. Additional analysis finds that the industry wage structure is highly correlated for workers in small and large firms, in different regions of the U.S., and with varying job tenures. Finally, evidence is presented demonstrating that turnover has a negative relationship with industry wage differentials. These findings suggest that workers in high wage industries receive noncompetitive rents.

The Industrial Wage Structure in Britain, 1906-38

The Industrial Wage Structure in Britain, 1906-38