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Gift exchange and the business cycle: the fair wage strikes back

Author

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  • Collard, Fabrice

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES); Université de Paris I, MAD)

  • de la Croix, David

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) ; Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS))

Abstract

We extend the benchmark RBC model amending the technology for efficiency wage considerations. The disutility of effort depends on current, alternative and past wages. Past wages are treated as the worker's past wages (personal norm case) or as the past wages of the society (social norm case). This last model reproduces the high variability of employment, the low variability of wages and the low wage-employment correlation without requiring a second source of impulsions. Moreover the dynamics of wages and employment is adequately captured when norms adjust slowly to the environment. Efficiency wages are thus useful to solve the business cycle puzzle when we allow for inter-temporal wage comparisons.

Suggested Citation

  • Collard, Fabrice & de la Croix, David, 1996. "Gift exchange and the business cycle: the fair wage strikes back," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1997008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 00 Apr 1997.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:1997008
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    efficiency wage; effort; time-non-separability; RBC; wage sluggishness; business cycle puzzle;
    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

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