IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/v23y2005i2p313-340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Employers Provide Insurance against Low Frequency Shocks? Industry Employment and Industry Wages

Author

Listed:
  • Paul J. Devereux

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

I use panel data to examine whether long-term changes in industry wages are positively related to long-term changes in industry employment. Previous research using repeated cross-sectional data found no systematic relationship between these variables. Using standard fixed effects models to deal with individual heterogeneity, I find a robust positive relationship between changes in composition-constant industry wages and industry employment. This suggests that growing industries attract less skilled individuals in a manner that biases down the estimated relationship between industry employment and wages in repeated cross-sectional data. The results imply that supply curves facing industries are elastic but upward sloping.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul J. Devereux, 2005. "Do Employers Provide Insurance against Low Frequency Shocks? Industry Employment and Industry Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 313-340, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:v:23:y:2005:i:2:p:313-340
    DOI: 10.1086/428026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/428026
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/428026?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
    ---><---

    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. Gary Solon & Robert Barsky & Jonathan A. Parker, 1994. "Measuring the Cyclicality of Real Wages: How Important is Composition Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 1-25.
    2. William J. Carrington, 1993. "Wage Losses for Displaced Workers: Is It Really the Firm That Matters?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(3), pages 435-462.
    3. McLaughlin, Kenneth J & Bils, Mark, 2001. "Interindustry Mobility and the Cyclical Upgrading of Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 94-135, January.
    4. Robert Gibbons & Lawrence F. Katz & Thomas Lemieux & Daniel Parent, 2005. "Comparative Advantage, Learning, and Sectoral Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 681-724, October.
    5. Shaw, Kathryn L, 1989. "Wage Variability in the 1970s: Sectoral Shifts or Cyclical Sensitivi ty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 26-36, February.
    6. A. D. Roy, 1951. "Some Thoughts On The Distribution Of Earnings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 135-146.
    7. Bound, John & Johnson, George, 1992. "Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 371-392, June.
    8. Neal, Derek, 1995. "Industry-Specific Human Capital: Evidence from Displaced Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(4), pages 653-677, October.
    9. Helwege, Jean, 1992. "Sectoral Shifts and Interindustry Wage Differentials," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(1), pages 55-84, January.
    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. N. Guertzgen, 2014. "Wage insurance within German firms: do institutions matter?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(2), pages 345-369, February.
    2. Miguel Portela & Ana Rute Cardoso, 2005. "The provision of wage insurance by the firm: evidence from a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset," NIPE Working Papers 17/2005, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    3. Ana Rute Cardoso & Miguel Portela, 2009. "Micro Foundations for Wage Flexibility: Wage Insurance at the Firm Level," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 111(1), pages 29-50, March.
    4. David Gray & Hanqing Qiu, 2010. "The responsiveness of industry wages to low-frequency shocks in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1221-1242, November.
    5. Kátay, Gábor, 2008. "Do firms provide wage insurance against shocks? Evidence from Hungary," Working Paper Series 964, European Central Bank.

    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. Michael J. Bohm & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, 2021. "The Performance of Recent Methods for Estimating Skill Prices in Panel Data," Papers 2111.12459, arXiv.org.
    2. Weinberg, Bruce A, 2001. "Long-Term Wage Fluctuations with Industry-Specific Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 231-264, January.
    3. Paul J. Devereux, 2005. "Effects of Industry Growth and Decline on Gender and Education Wage Gaps in the 1980S," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(4), pages 552-570, July.
    4. Michael J. Böhm & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & Felix Schran, 2024. "Occupation Growth, Skill Prices, and Wage Inequality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(1), pages 201-243.
    5. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Job Tasks, Time Allocation, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 399-433.
    6. Liu, Runjuan & Trefler, Daniel, 2019. "A sorted tale of globalization: White collar jobs and the rise of service offshoring," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 105-122.
    7. Verdugo, Gregory & Allègre, Guillaume, 2020. "Labour force participation and job polarization: Evidence from Europe during the Great Recession," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Robert Gibbons & Lawrence F. Katz & Thomas Lemieux & Daniel Parent, 2005. "Comparative Advantage, Learning, and Sectoral Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 681-724, October.
    9. Shin, Donggyun & Shin, Kwanho, 2008. "Why Are The Wages Of Job Stayers Procyclical?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, February.
    10. Carl Sanders & Christopher Taber, 2012. "Life-Cycle Wage Growth and Heterogeneous Human Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 399-425, July.
    11. Ken Ueda, 2019. "How Do Local Labor Markets and Human Capital Affect Employment Outcomes after Job Loss?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 548-572, October.
    12. Cavaglia, Chiara & Etheridge, Ben, 2020. "Job polarization and the declining quality of knowledge workers: Evidence from the UK and Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Uta Schoenberg & Christina Gathmann, 2006. "How General is Specific Human Capital? Using Mobility Patterns to Study Skill Transferability in the Labor Market," 2006 Meeting Papers 598, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Michael Boehm & Martin Watzinger, 2012. "The Allocation of Talent over the Business Cycle and its Effect on Sectoral Productivity," CEP Discussion Papers dp1143, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    15. Orsa Kekezi & Ron Boschma, 2021. "Returns to migration after job loss—The importance of job match," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1565-1587, September.
    16. Philip Oreopoulos & Till von Wachter & Andrew Heisz, 2006. "The Short- and Long-Term Career Effects of Graduating in a Recession: Hysteresis and Heterogeneity in the Market for College Graduates," NBER Working Papers 12159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Sullivan, Paul, 2010. "Empirical evidence on occupation and industry specific human capital," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 567-580, June.
    18. Stéphane Auray, David Fuller & Damba lkhagvasuren & Antoine Terracol, 2014. "A Dynamic Analysis of Sectoral Mobility, Worker Mismatc and the Wage-Tenure Profiles," Working Papers 2014-12, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    19. Auray Stéphane & Fuller David & Lkhagvasuren Damba & Terracol Antoine, 2017. "Dynamic Comparative Advantage, Directed Mobility Across Sectors, and Wages," Working Papers 2017-59, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. Christina Gathmann & Uta Schönberg, 2010. "How General Is Human Capital? A Task-Based Approach," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-49, January.

    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:ucp:jlabec:v:23:y:2005:i:2:p:313-340. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE .

    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.