IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bde/opaper/2028.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effects of changes in the composition of employment on euro area wage growth: panel data analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Ángel Luis Gómez

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

In the euro area, the composition of employment has changed significantly since the onset of the financial crisis, particularly in terms of employees’ age and educational level, in addition to the incidence of temporary contracts. This paper exploits two new panel datasets to estimate the extent to which changes in the composition of employment were behind weak wage growth in the euro area and in its main member countries during the economic recovery following the financial crisis. This type of analysis, which follows the same individual over several periods of time, allows the effect of individual productivity to be treated econometrically and certain biases that could affect the use of cross-sectional data to be avoided. It is concluded that changes in the composition of employment had some positive effect on wages in the euro area between 2010 and 2012. However, from 2013 until 2017, the last period for which microdata are available, this effect turned negative and increased in magnitude, dampening aggregate wage growth. In the last two years the effect was particularly significant, with an impact of around 1 percentage point. Correcting for the effect of changes in the composition of employment on wages leads to a closer relationship between wages and cyclical conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ángel Luis Gómez, 2020. "The effects of changes in the composition of employment on euro area wage growth: panel data analysis," Occasional Papers 2028, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:opaper:2028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosOcasionales/20/Files/do2028e.pdf
    File Function: First version, November 2020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosOcasionales/20/Fich/do2028.pdf
    File Function: Spanish version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Verdugo, Gregory, 2016. "Real wage cyclicality in the Eurozone before and during the Great Recession: Evidence from micro data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 46-69.
    2. 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.
    3. Kouvavas, Omiros & Kuik, Friderike & Koester, Gerrit & Nickel, Christiane, 2019. "The effects of changes in the composition of employment on euro area wage growth," Economic Bulletin Articles, European Central Bank, vol. 8.
    4. Bils, Mark J, 1985. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 666-689, August.
    5. F. De Sloover & Y. Saks, 2018. "Is job polarisation accompanied by wage polarisation?," Economic Review, National Bank of Belgium, issue iii, pages 79-90, september.
    6. Keane, Michael & Moffitt, Robert & Runkle, David, 1988. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Estimating the Impact of Heterogeneity with Micro Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(6), pages 1232-1266, December.
    7. Christodoulopoulou, Styliani & Kouvavas, Omiros, 2022. "Wages, compositional effects and the business cycle," Working Paper Series 2653, European Central Bank.
    8. Berger, Melissa & Schaffner, Sandra, 2016. "A note on how to realize the full potential of the EU-SILC data," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 4, pages 395-416.
    9. repec:bde:journl:v:02:y:2014:p:05 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Sergio Puente & Sofía Galán, 2014. "Analysis of composition effects on wage behaviour," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue FEB, pages 25-28, February.
    11. Bobeica, Elena & Koester, Gerrit & Lis, Eliza & Nickel, Christiane & Porqueddu, Mario, 2019. "Understanding low wage growth in the euro area and European countries," Occasional Paper Series 232, European Central Bank.
    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. Ángel Luis Gómez, 2020. "Efectos de los cambios en la composición del empleo sobre la evolución de los salarios en la zona del euro: un análisis con datos de panel," Occasional Papers 2028, Banco de España.
    2. Otrok Christopher & Pourpourides Panayiotis M., 2019. "On the cyclicality of real wages and wage differentials," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-18, January.
    3. Christodoulopoulou, Styliani & Kouvavas, Omiros, 2022. "Wages, compositional effects and the business cycle," Working Paper Series 2653, European Central Bank.
    4. Note: For best results & the figures should be printed on a non-Postscript printer. Hoynes & H., "undated". "The Employment, Earnings, and Income of Less-Skilled Workers over the Business Cycle," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1199-99, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    5. James Hines & Hilary Hoynes & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Another Look at Whether a Rising Tide Lifts All Boats," Working Papers 833, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    6. Anabela Carneiro & Paulo Guimaraes & Pedro Portugal, 2009. "Real Wages and the Business Cycle: Accounting for Worker and Firm Heterogeneity," CEF.UP Working Papers 0903, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    7. Cyrus Farsian, 2011. "The Fallacy of Composition Bias in the RealWage Cyclicality Puzzle," Studies in Economics 1116, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    8. Lokshin, Boris & Mohnen, Pierre, 2008. "Wage effects of R&D tax incentives:Evidence from the Netherlands," MERIT Working Papers 2008-034, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Pedro Portugal & Anabela Carneiro, 2004. "Workers' Flows and Real Wage Cyclicality," Working Papers w200409, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    10. Magda Kandil, 2010. "Demand shocks and the cyclical behavior of the real wage: Some international evidence," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 13, pages 135-158, May.
    11. 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.
    12. Gu, Grace Weishi & Prasad, Eswar, 2018. "New Evidence on Cyclical Variation in Labor Costs in the U.S," IZA Discussion Papers 11311, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Casey B. Mulligan, 2011. "Rising Labor Productivity during the 2008-9 Recession," NBER Working Papers 17584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Jeanne, Olivier, 1998. "Generating real persistent effects of monetary shocks: How much nominal rigidity do we really need?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1009-1032, June.
    15. Xin Xu & Robert Kaestner, 2010. "The Business Cycle and Health Behaviors," NBER Working Papers 15737, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Beth Anne Wilson, "undated". "Movements of Wages over the Business Cycle: An Intra-Firm View," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-01, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 10 Dec 2019.
    17. Lokshin, Boris & Mohnen, Pierre, 2013. "Do R&D tax incentives lead to higher wages for R&D workers? Evidence from The Netherlands," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 823-830.
    18. James R. Hines & Hilary Hoynes & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Another Look at Whether a Rising Tide Lifts All Boats," Working Papers 833, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    19. Marczak, Martyna & Gómez, Víctor, 2015. "Cyclicality of real wages in the USA and Germany: New insights from wavelet analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 40-52.
    20. Kandil, Magda, 2007. "The wage-price spiral: International evidence and implications," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 212-240.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    compositional effects; panel data; individual fixed effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bde:opaper:2028. 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: Ángel Rodríguez. Electronic Dissemination of Information Unit. Research Department. Banco de España (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdegves.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.