IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cbi/qtbart/y2015m07p73-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour Cost Adjustment during the Crisis: Firm-level Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Linehan, Suzanne

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • Lydon, Reamonn

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • Scally, John

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

Abstract

This paper introduces a new firm-level dataset, based on the results from a survey on the wage-setting practices of Irish firms in the second half of 2014. These survey results represent a useful resource for policy makers, allowing for firm-level analysis of the approach to the adjustment of labour demand and wages in the face of a large negative shock. A number of findings are worth highlighting in relation to these results: in terms of the labour cost cutting approach, firms relied upon both reductions in the quantity (employment and hours) and the price of labour (wages); employee numbers was the most widely used margin of adjustment, followed by wage cuts and hours. While the majority of Irish firms opted to freeze base wages, in the region of 60 per cent, there is strong evidence of downward wage flexibility, with almost one quarter of firms surveyed cutting wages. A comparison with previous findings in relation to Ireland and other euro area countries points to a dramatic increase in the incidence of wage freezes and wage cuts amongst Irish firms during the 2008-2013 period.

Suggested Citation

  • Linehan, Suzanne & Lydon, Reamonn & Scally, John, 2015. "Labour Cost Adjustment during the Crisis: Firm-level Evidence," Quarterly Bulletin Articles, Central Bank of Ireland, pages 73-92, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbi:qtbart:y:2015:m:07:p:73-92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/publications/quarterly-bulletins/qb-archive/2015/quarterly-bulletin-no-3-2015.pdf?sfvrsn=8#page=75
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William T. Dickens & Lorenz Goette & Erica L. Groshen & Steinar Holden & Julian Messina & Mark E. Schweitzer & Jarkko Turunen & Melanie E. Ward, 2007. "How Wages Change: Micro Evidence from the International Wage Flexibility Project," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 195-214, Spring.
    2. Lawless, Martina & Keeney, Mary, 2010. "Wage setting and wage flexibility in Ireland - Results from a firm-level survey," Working Paper Series 1181, European Central Bank.
    3. Bertola, Giuseppe & Dabusinskas, Aurelijus & Hoeberichts, Marco & Izquierdo, Mario & Kwapil, Claudia & Montornès, Jeremi & Radowski, Daniel, 2012. "Price, wage and employment response to shocks: evidence from the WDN survey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 783-791.
    4. Claudia Kwapil & Johann Scharler & Josef Baumgartner, 2010. "How are prices adjusted in response to shocks? Survey evidence from Austrian firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2-3), pages 151-160.
    5. Conefrey, Thomas & Smith, Richard, 2014. "On the Slide? Salary Scales for New Graduates 2004-2012," Economic Letters 01/EL/14, Central Bank of Ireland.
    6. Bergin, Adele & Kelly, Elish & McGuinness, Seamus, 2012. "Explaining Changes in Earnings and Labour Costs During the Recession," Papers EC9, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    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. Byrne, Stephen & McIndoe-Calder, Tara, 2019. "Employment Growth: Where Do We Go From Here?," Quarterly Bulletin Articles, Central Bank of Ireland, pages 122-148, July.
    2. Cornille, David & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan, 2019. "Heterogeneous effects of credit constraints on SMEs’ employment: Evidence from the European sovereign debt crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Cornille, David & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan, 2018. "Heterogeneous Effects of Credit Constraints on SMEs' Employment: Evidence from the Great Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 11257, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Lydon, Reamonn & Lozej, Matija, 2018. "Flexibility of new hires’ earnings in Ireland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 112-127.

    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. M. Ali Choudhary & Saima Mahmood & Sajawal Khan & Waqas Ahmed & Gylfi Zoega, 2013. "Sticky Wages in a Developing Country: Lessons from Structured Interviews in Pakistan," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0213, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    2. Aurelijus Dabusinskas & István Kónya & Stephen Millard, 2015. "How does labour market structure affect the response of economies to shocks?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1516, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    3. repec:onb:oenbwp:y::i:166:b:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Heiner Mikosch, 2012. "Sticky Prices, Competition and the Phillips Curve," KOF Working papers 12-294, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    5. Montornès, Jérémi & Sauner-Leroy, Jacques-Bernard, 2009. "Wage-setting behavior in France: additional evidence from an ad-hoc survey," Working Paper Series 1102, European Central Bank.
    6. Anne Kathrin Funk & Daniel Kaufmann, 2022. "Do Sticky Wages Matter? New Evidence from Matched Firm Survey and Register Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(355), pages 689-712, July.
    7. Philip Du Caju & Theodora Kosma & Martina Lawless & Julian Messina & Tairi Rõõm, 2013. "Why firms avoid cutting wages: Survey evidence from European firms," Working Paper Research 251, National Bank of Belgium.
    8. Izquierdo, Mario & Jimeno, Juan & Kosma, Theodora & Lamo, Ana & Millard, Stephen & Room, Tairi & Viviano, Eliana, 2017. "Labour market adjustment in Europe during the crisis: microeconomic evidence from the Wage Dynamics Network survey," Bank of England working papers 661, Bank of England.
    9. Ramos, Raul & Sanromá, Esteban & Simón, Hipólito, 2018. "Wage Differentials by Bargaining Regime in Spain (2002-2014): An Analysis Using Matched Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 12013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Jan Babecky & Kamil Dybczak, 2012. "Real Wage Flexibility in the European Union: New Evidence from the Labour Cost Data," Working Papers 2012/01, Czech National Bank.
    11. O'Brien, Derry & Scally, John, 2012. "Cost Competitiveness and Export Performance of the Irish Economy," Quarterly Bulletin Articles, Central Bank of Ireland, pages 86-102, July.
    12. Ana María Iregui & Ligia Alba Melo & María Teresa Ramírez, 2010. "Incrementos y rigideces de los salarios en Colombia: Un estudio a partir de una encuesta," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, November.
    13. Vega-Gutierrez, Pedro Luis & López-Iturriaga, Félix J. & Rodriguez-Sanz, Juan Antonio, 2021. "Labour market conditions and the corporate financing decision: A European analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. Bergin, Adele & Kelly, Elish & McGuinness, Seamus, 2012. "Explaining Changes in Earnings and Labour Costs During the Recession," Papers EC9, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Aedín Doris & Donal O’Neill & Olive Sweetman, 2015. "Wage flexibility and the great recession: the response of the Irish labour market," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, December.
    16. Emmanuel Dhyne & Martine Druant, 2010. "Wages, labor or prices : How do firms react to shocks ?," Working Paper Research 193, National Bank of Belgium.
    17. Heiner Mikosch, 2012. "Sticky Prices, Competition and the Phillips Curve," KOF Working papers 11-294, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    18. Ana María Iregui & Ligia Alba Melo & María Teresa Ramírez, 2009. "Formación e incrementos de salarios en Colombia: Un estudio microeconómico a partir de una encuesta a nivel de firma," Borradores de Economia 582, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    19. Millard, Stephen & Tatomir, Srdan, 2015. "Firms’ adjustment during 2010–13: evidence from the Wage Dynamics Survey," Bank of England working papers 568, Bank of England.
    20. Cecilia Navarra & Ermanno Tortia, 2014. "Employer Moral Hazard, Wage Rigidity, and Worker Cooperatives: A Theoretical Appraisal," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 707-726.
    21. Babecký, Jan & Du Caju, Philip & Kosma, Theodora & Lawless, Martina & Messina, Julián & Rõõm, Tairi, 2012. "How do European firms adjust their labour costs when nominal wages are rigid?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 792-801.

    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:cbi:qtbart:y:2015:m:07:p:73-92. 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: Fiona Farrelly (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbigvie.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.