IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jjieco/v1y1987i2p168-194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bonuses and employment in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Freeman, Richard B.
  • Weitzman, Martin L.

Abstract

Japan has a relatively unique system of labor compensation. Most Japanese workers are paid large bonuses twice a year. This paper examines the cyclical movement of bonuses compared with wages and the relation of bonuses to employment in the context of the Weitzman "share economy." The paper makes three basic points:(1) The Japanese bonus is much more pro-cyclical than Japanese base wages,but not as cyclically variable as profits. Bonuses can be interpreted as containing a quantitatively significant revenue or profit-sharing component.(2) Bonuses have quite different employment consequences than do base wages. Even after controlling for other economic factors, bonuses are positively related to employment, whereas base wages are negatively related to employment.(3) The bonus system of paying workers, while far from explaining the whole macroeconomic story in Japan, seems to play a role in helping to stabilize Japanese unemployment at comparatively low levels.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Freeman, Richard B. & Weitzman, Martin L., 1987. "Bonuses and employment in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 168-194, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:1:y:1987:i:2:p:168-194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0889-1583(87)90003-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haraf, William S., 1984. "'The relationship between production and unemployment in Japan Okun's law in comparative perspective' by K. Hamada and Y. Kurosaka," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 95-98, June.
    2. Tachibanaki, Toshiaki, 1982. "Further Results on Japanese Wage Differentials: Nenko Wages, Hierarchical Position, Bonuses, and Working Hours," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 23(2), pages 447-461, June.
    3. Grossman, H I & Haraf, W S, 1989. "Shunto, Rational Expectations, and Output Growth in Japan," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 193-213.
    4. Grubb, David B. & Jackman, Richard & Layard, Richard, 1983. "Wage rigidity and unemployment in OECD countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1-2), pages 11-39.
    5. Symons, J & Layard, R, 1984. "Neoclassical Demand for Labour Functions for Six Major Economies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(376), pages 788-799, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Aurélien Goutsmedt & Matthieu Renault & Francesco Sergi, 2021. "European Economics and the Early Years of the International Seminar on Macroeconomics," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 131(4), pages 693-722.
    2. Jeffrey Sachs, 1986. "High Unemployment in Europe: Diagnosis and Policy Implications," NBER Working Papers 1830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bierens, H.J. & Broersma, L., 1990. "The relation between unemployment and interest rate : some empirical evidence," Serie Research Memoranda 0078, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    4. Aurélien Goutsmedt & Matthieu Renault, Francesco Sergi, 2019. "European Economics and the Early Years of the “International Seminar on Macroeconomicsâ€," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2019_50, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    5. G.C. Lim & Robert Dixon & Sarantis Tsiaplias, 2009. "Phillips Curve and the Equilibrium Unemployment Rate," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(271), pages 371-382, December.
    6. Laurence Ball, 1994. "What Determines the Sacrifice Ratio?," NBER Chapters, in: Monetary Policy, pages 155-193, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Boeters, Stefan, 2011. "Optimal tax progressivity in unionised labour markets: What are the driving forces?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 2282-2295, September.
    8. Patrick Artus, 1987. "Salaire réel et emploi," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(3), pages 625-660.
    9. Sanvi Avouyi-Dovi & Denis Fougère & Erwan Gautier, 2013. "Wage Rigidity, Collective Bargaining, and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from French Agreement Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1337-1351, October.
    10. Möller, Joachim, 1988. "Identifying the causes of unemployment: Estimation and control of a small macroeconomic model," Discussion Papers, Series I 236, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    11. Lavan Mahadeva & Katerina Smidkova, 2004. "Modelling transmission mechanism of monetary policy in the Czech Republic," Macroeconomics 0402032, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Lichter, Andreas & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "The own-wage elasticity of labor demand: A meta-regression analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 94-119.
    13. Christopher Bowdler, 2003. "Openness and the Output-Inflation Tradeoff," Economics Papers 2003-W04, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    14. John C. P. McCallum, 1986. "Two Cheers for the Anti-Inflation Board," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 12(1), pages 133-147, March.
    15. Paul Flatau, 2003. "Are Nominal Wages Downwardly Rigid? New Australian Evidence on an Old Quarrel," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 1-4, March.
    16. Thomas Jordan, 1997. "Disinflation costs, accelerating inflation gains, and central bank independence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 133(1), pages 1-21, March.
    17. Quandt, Richard E & Rosen, Harvey S, 1989. "Endogenous Output in an Aggregate Model of the Labor Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(3), pages 394-400, August.
    18. Charles R. Bean, 1992. "Economic and Monetary Union in Europe," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 31-52, Fall.
    19. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    20. Antonia López-Villavicencio & Sophie Saglio, 2017. "The Wage Inflation-Unemployment Curve at the Macroeconomic Level," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(1), pages 55-78, February.

    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:eee:jjieco:v:1:y:1987:i:2:p:168-194. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622903 .

    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.