IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fep/journl/v23y2010i1p27-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Micro and Macro Level Wage Rigidity: Lessons from Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Petri Böckerman

    (Labour Institute for Economic Research)

  • Seppo Laaksonen

    (Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki)

  • Jari Vainiomäki

    (Department of Economics and Accounting, University of Tampere)

Abstract

The paper explores wage flexibility in Finland. The study covers the private sector workers by using three data sets from the payroll records of employers’ associations. The data span the period 1985–2001. The results reveal that there has been macroeconomic flexibility in the labour market. Average real wages declined during the depression of the early 1990s and a large proportion of workers experienced real wage cuts. However, the evidence based on individual-level wage change distributions shows that real wages, especially, are rigid downwards. In particular, during the late 1990s, individual-level wage changes regained the high levels of real rigidity that prevailed in the 1980s, despite the continued high (but declining) level of unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Petri Böckerman & Seppo Laaksonen & Jari Vainiomäki, 2010. "Micro and Macro Level Wage Rigidity: Lessons from Finland," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 27-42, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:fep:journl:v:23:y:2010:i:1:p:27-42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.taloustieteellinenyhdistys.fi/images/stories/fep/fep12010/fep12010bockerman.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Enrique G. Mendoza & Linda L. Tesar, 2012. "The Finnish Great Depression: From Russia with Love," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1619-1644, June.
    2. 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.
    3. Asplund, Rita, 2007. "Finland: Decentralisation Tendencies within a Collective Wage Bargaining System," Discussion Papers 1077, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    4. Tomi Kyyrä & Mika Maliranta, 2008. "The micro-level dynamics of declining labour share: lessons from the Finnish great leap ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(6), pages 1147-1172, December.
    5. William T. Dickens & Lorenz Goette & Erica L. Groshen & Steinar Holden & Julian Messina & Mark E. Schweitzer & Jarkko Turunen & Melanie Ward, 2006. "The interaction of labor markets and inflation: analysis of micro data from the International Wage Flexibility Project," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    6. Böckerman, Petri & Laaksonen, Seppo & Vainiomäki, Jari, 2006. "Micro-level evidence on wage rigidities in Finland," MPRA Paper 1811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Petri Böckerman & Roope Uusitalo, 2009. "Minimum Wages and Youth Employment: Evidence from the Finnish Retail Trade Sector," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(2), pages 388-405, June.
    8. Roope Uusitalo, 2005. "Do Centralized Bargains Lead to Wage Moderation? Time-Series Evidence from Finland," Springer Books, in: Hannu Piekkola & Kenneth Snellman (ed.), Collective Bargaining and Wage Formation, pages 121-132, Springer.
    9. Abowd, John M & Card, David, 1989. "On the Covariance Structure of Earnings and Hours Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 411-445, March.
    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. Laamanen, Jani-Petri, 2017. "Home-ownership and the Labour Market: Evidence from Rental Housing Market Deregulation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 157-167.
    2. Ahrens, Steffen & Pirschel, Inske & Snower, Dennis J., 2014. "A theory of wage adjustment under loss aversion," Kiel Working Papers 1977, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Jari Vainiomäki, 2020. "The development of wage dispersion and wage rigidity in Finland," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    4. Päällysaho, Miika Matias, 2017. "The Short- and Long-Term Effects of Graduating During a Recession: Evidence from Finland," Working Papers 96, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Maczulskij, Terhi, 2013. "Public–private sector wage differentials and the business cycle," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 284-301.

    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. Petri Böckerman & Seppo Laaksonen & Jari Vainiomäki, 2009. "Micro-level Rigidity vs. Macro-level Flexibility: Lessons from Finland," Working Papers 0972, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    2. Lünnemann, Patrick & Wintr, Ladislav, 2010. "Downward wage rigidity and automatic wage indexation: evidence from monthly micro wage data," Working Paper Series 1269, European Central Bank.
    3. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Enrique G. Mendoza & Linda L. Tesar, 2012. "The Finnish Great Depression: From Russia with Love," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1619-1644, June.
    4. Päällysaho, Miika Matias, 2017. "The Short- and Long-Term Effects of Graduating During a Recession: Evidence from Finland," Working Papers 96, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Du Caju, Philip & Fuss, Catherine & Wintr, Ladislav, 2009. "Understanding sectoral differences in downward real wage rigidity: workforce composition, institutions, technology and competition," Working Paper Series 1006, European Central Bank.
    6. 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.
    7. Otto Kässi, 2014. "Earnings dynamics of men and women in Finland: permanent inequality versus earnings instability," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 451-477, March.
    8. Nicolas Roys, 2016. "Persistence of Shocks and the Reallocation of Labor," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 22, pages 109-130, October.
    9. Julián Messina & Cláudia Filipa Duarte & Mario Izquierdo & Philip Du Caju & Niels Lynggård Hansen, 2010. "The Incidence of Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity: An Individual-Based Sectoral Approach," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(2-3), pages 487-496, 04-05.
    10. Böckerman, Petri & Laaksonen, Seppo & Vainiomäki, Jari, 2006. "Micro-level evidence on wage rigidities in Finland," MPRA Paper 1811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Catherine Fuss & Ladislav Wintr, 2009. "Rigid labour compensation and flexible employment ? Firm-level evidence with regard to productivity for Belgium," Working Paper Research 159, National Bank of Belgium.
    12. Kátay, Gábor, 2011. "Downward wage rigidity in Hungary," Working Paper Series 1372, European Central Bank.
    13. Philip Du Caju & Catherine Fuss & Ladislav Wintr, 2007. "Downward wage rigidity for different workers and firms : an evaluation for Belgium using the IWFP procedure," Working Paper Research 124, National Bank of Belgium.
    14. Catherine Fuss & Ladislav Wintr, 2012. "Rigid Wages and Flexible Employment ?Contrasting Responses to Firm-Level and Sector-Level Productivity Developments," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 55(3), pages 241-268.
    15. Pascal Michaillat, 2012. "Do Matching Frictions Explain Unemployment? Not in Bad Times," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1721-1750, June.
    16. Fuss, Catherine, 2008. "How do firms adjust their wage bill in Belgium? A decomposition along the intensive and extensive margins," Working Paper Series 854, European Central Bank.
    17. Philip Du Caju & Catherine Fuss & Ladislav Wintr, 2012. "Downward Wage Regidity for Different Workers and Firms," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 55(1), pages 5-32.
    18. Claudia M. Buch, 2013. "From the Stability Pact to ESM - What Next?," Chapters, in: Andreas Dombret & Otto Lucius (ed.), Stability of the Financial System, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Enrico Biffis & Beniamin Goldys & Cecilia Prosdocimi & Margherita Zanella, 2023. "A pricing formula for delayed claims: appreciating the past to value the future," Mathematics and Financial Economics, Springer, volume 17, number 2, February.
    20. Enrico Biffis & Fausto Gozzi & Cecilia Prosdocimi, 2020. "Optimal portfolio choice with path dependent labor income: the infinite horizon case," Papers 2002.00201, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods

    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:fep:journl:v:23:y:2010:i:1:p:27-42. 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: Editorial Secretary (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/talouea.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.