IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/manchs/v71y2003i2p97-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Overtime Working, The Phillips Curve And The Wage Curve: British Engineering, 1926–66

Author

Listed:
  • Robert A. Hart

Abstract

This paper shows that wage–unemployment elasticities derived from estimated wage curves and Phillips curves may be critically dependent on the measurement of wages. Incorporating hourly wage earnings that include the influence of overtime payments can lead to seriously distorted results. Meaningful elasticities are obtained only if hourly standard wages form the basis of analysis. Work is based on a unique data set describing two homogeneous blue–collar occupational groups—skilled fitters and unskilled labourers—in the British engineering industry. Each group is also divided into timeworkers and piece–rate workers. Data are aggregated into a panel of 28 local labour markets and cover the highly contrasting periods 1928–38 and 1954–66.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert A. Hart, 2003. "Overtime Working, The Phillips Curve And The Wage Curve: British Engineering, 1926–66," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 71(2), pages 97-112, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:71:y:2003:i:2:p:97-112
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9957.00338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9957.00338
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9957.00338?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Dean Hyslop, 1997. "Does Inflation "Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market"?," NBER Chapters, in: Reducing Inflation: Motivation and Strategy, pages 71-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. A. W. Phillips, 1958. "The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1861–1957," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 25(100), pages 283-299, November.
    3. Bernanke, Ben S, 1986. "Employment, Hours, and Earnings in the Depression: An Analysis of EightManufacturing Industries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 82-109, March.
    4. Lutz Bellmann & Uwe Blien, 2001. "Wage Curve Analyses of Establishment Data from Western Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(4), pages 851-863, July.
    5. David Card, 1995. "The Wage Curve: A Review," Working Papers 722, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    6. Olivier Blanchard & Lawrence F. Katz, 1997. "What We Know and Do Not Know about the Natural Rate of Unemployment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-72, Winter.
    7. David Card, 1995. "The Wage Curve: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 285-299, June.
    8. Angela J. Black & Felix R. FitzRoy, 2000. "Earning Curves and Wage Curves," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(5), pages 471-486, November.
    9. Hart, R A, 1983. "The Phillips Curve and Cyclical Manhour Variation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 186-201, July.
    10. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1994. "Estimating a Wage Curve for Britain: 1973-90," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(426), pages 1025-1043, September.
    11. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    12. #Name# & #Name#, 2000. "Earnings Curves and Wage Curves," Discussion Paper Series, School of Economics and Finance 200004, School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews.
    13. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    14. repec:bla:scotjp:v:47:y:2000:i:5:p:471-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Islam , Faridul & Shabbir, Muhammad Shahbaz, 2012. "Phillips Curve in a Small Open Economy: A Time Series Exploration of North Cyprus," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 35(4), pages 113-130, December.
    2. Roberto Bande Ramudo & Melchor Fernández Fernández & Víctor Montuenga Gómez, 2011. "Wage flexibility and local labour markets: homogeneity of the wage curve in Spain," Documentos de trabajo - Analise Economica 0044, IDEGA - Instituto Universitario de Estudios e Desenvolvemento de Galicia.
    3. Atif Awad & Ishak Youssof, 2016. "The impact of economic globalisation on unemployment: The Malaysian experience," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7), pages 938-958, October.
    4. Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2005. "The Last Word on the Wage Curve?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 421-450, July.
    5. Esteban Sanroma & Raul Ramos, 2005. "Further Evidence on Disaggregated Wage Curves: The Case of Spain," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 8(3), pages 227-243, September.
    6. Víctor M. Montuenga‐Gómez & José M. Ramos‐Parreño, 2005. "Reconciling the Wage Curve and the Phillips Curve," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 735-765, December.
    7. Fumitaka Furuoka & Chong Mun Ho, 2009. "Phillips curves and openness: New evidence from selected Asian economies," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(1), pages 253-264.
    8. Fumitaka Furuoka, 2007. "Does the “Phillips Curve” Really Exist? New Empirical Evidence from Malaysia," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 5(16), pages 1-14.
    9. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:5:y:2007:i:16:p:1-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Esu, Godwin & Atan, Johnson, 2017. "The Philip's Curve in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 82112, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Fumitaka Furuoka & Qaiser Munir & Hanafiah Harvey, 2013. "Does the Phillips curve exist in the Philippines?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 2001-2016.
    12. Victor Montuenga & Inmaculada Garcia, 2011. "The wage dynamics in Spain: evidence from individual data," ERSA conference papers ersa11p585, European Regional Science Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Víctor M. Montuenga‐Gómez & José M. Ramos‐Parreño, 2005. "Reconciling the Wage Curve and the Phillips Curve," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 735-765, December.
    2. Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2005. "The Last Word on the Wage Curve?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 421-450, July.
    3. Hart, Robert A, 2001. "Hours and Wages in the Depression: British Engineering, 1926-1938," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 478-502, October.
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2005. "The Wage Curve Reloaded," NBER Working Papers 11338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Simonetta Longhi, 2012. "Job Competition and the Wage Curve," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 611-620, August.
    6. Kumar, Anil & M. Orrenius, Pia, 2016. "A closer look at the Phillips curve using state-level data," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA), pages 84-102.
    7. Ilias Livanos, 2010. "The Wage-Local Unemployment Relationship in a Highly Regulated Labour Market: Greece," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 389-400.
    8. Baltagi, Badi H. & Blien, Uwe & Wolf, Katja, 2009. "New evidence on the dynamic wage curve for Western Germany: 1980-2004," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 47-51, January.
    9. Inmaculada Garcia-Mainar & Victor Montuenga-Gomez, 2003. "The Spanish Wage Curve: 1994-1996," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 929-945.
    10. García-Mainar , Inmaculada & Montuenga-Gómez , Víctor M., 2012. "Wage dynamics in Spain: evidence from individual data (1994-2001)," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 24, pages 41-58.
    11. Giorgio Fagiolo & Giovanni Dosi & Roberto Gabriele, 2005. "Towards an evolutionary interpretation of aggregate labor market regularities," Springer Books, in: Uwe Cantner & Elias Dinopoulos & Robert F. Lanzillotti (ed.), Entrepreneurships, the New Economy and Public Policy, pages 223-252, Springer.
    12. Baltagi, Badi H. & Baskaya, Yusuf Soner & Hulagu, Timur, 2012. "The Turkish wage curve: Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 128-131.
    13. Baltagi, Badi H. & Blien, Uwe, 1998. "The German wage curve: evidence from the IAB employment sample," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 135-142, November.
    14. Reinhold Kosfeld & Christian Dreger, 2018. "Local and spatial cointegration in the wage curve – a spatial panel analysis for german regions," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(1), pages 53-75, February.
    15. Ammermüller, Andreas & Lucifora, Claudio & Origo, Federica & Zwick, Thomas, 2007. "Still searching for the wage curve: evidence from Germany and Italy," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-008, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Pant, Hom & Warr, Peter, 2016. "Modelling Involuntary Unemployment in Applied GE Models," Conference papers 332799, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    17. Kosfeld, Reinhold & Dreger, Christian, 2019. "Towards an East German wage curve - NUTS boundaries, labour market regions and unemployment spillovers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 115-124.
    18. Marianne Bertrand, 2004. "From the Invisible Handshake to the Invisible Hand? How Import Competition Changes the Employment Relationship," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(4), pages 723-766, October.
    19. Baltagi, Badi H. & Baskaya, Yusuf Soner & Hulagu, Timur, 2012. "The Turkish wage curve: Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 128-131.
    20. Ana Barufi & Eduardo Haddad & Peter Nijkamp, 2016. "A comprehensive analysis of the wage curve in Brazil: Non-linearities, urban size, and the spatial dimension," ERSA conference papers ersa16p279, European Regional Science Association.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:71:y:2003:i:2:p:97-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.