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Contract Duration and Indexation in a Period of Real and Nominal Uncertainty

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  • Louis Christofides
  • Amy Chen Peng

Abstract

A sample of 11885 wage agreements, reached in the Canadian unionized sector during 1976-2000, a period of high as well as exceptionally low inflation and substantial fluctuations in nominal and real uncertainty, is used to study the determinants of key provisions of contracts such as their duration and indexation clauses. Econometric techniques, which account for the interaction between duration and indexation, as well as the latent nature of the elasticity of indexation are used. Results obtained suggest that expected inflation, nominal and real uncertainty account for most of the secular and cyclical changes in contract provisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Christofides & Amy Chen Peng, 2003. "Contract Duration and Indexation in a Period of Real and Nominal Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series 994, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_994
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    Cited by:

    1. Louis N. Christofides & Amy Peng, 2007. "Real Wage Chronologies," Working Papers 0707, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    2. Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde & Marianne Guille, 2011. "Keynes's animal spirits vindicated: an analysis of recent empirical and neural data on money illusion," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 331-352.
    3. Jonung, Lars & Fregert, Klas, 2008. "Inflation Targeting Is a Success, So Far: 100 Years of Evidence from Swedish Wage Contracts," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-25.
    4. Pfister, C., 2007. "Labour market flexibility: what does Banque de France research tell us?," Quarterly selection of articles - Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 10, pages 79-93, Winter.
    5. López-Bayón, Susana & González-Díaz, Manuel, 2010. "Indefinite contract duration: Evidence from electronics subcontracting," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 145-159, June.
    6. Danziger, Leif, 2008. "Extension of labor contracts and optimal backpay," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 18-36, February.
    7. Louis Christofides & Chen Peng, 2006. "Major Provisions of Labour Contracts and their Theoretical Coherence," CESifo Working Paper Series 1700, CESifo.
    8. Danziger, Leif, 2010. "Uniform and nonuniform staggering of wage contracts," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 1038-1049, December.
    9. Klas Fregert & Lars Jonung, 2007. "Policy rule evaluation by contract-makers: 100 years of wage contract length in Sweden," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 270, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    10. Liu, Chunping & Peng, Amy, 2010. "A reinvestigation of contract duration using Quantile Regression for Counts analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 184-187, March.

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