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Job competition and the wage curve

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  • Longhi, Simonetta

Abstract

We test whether in Great Britain the recent increase in the supply of university graduates has a negative impact on their wages, and analyse to what extent the local labour market for graduates should be seen as regional rather than national. We do this by computing two measures of job competition amongst graduates: the first assumes that the labour market for graduates is regional, while the second assumes that it is national. We then compare the two estimated wage impacts. We find that job competition amongst graduates has a negative impact on graduate wages, that the labour market for graduates appears to be regional, and that a large part of the regional imbalance between labour supply and demand is corrected by commuting rather than migration. Also, the wage impact of job competition seems to differ by gender and across groups of occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Longhi, Simonetta, 2007. "Job competition and the wage curve," ISER Working Paper Series 2007-24, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2007-24
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    Cited by:

    1. Blien, Uwe & Messmann, Susanne & Trappmann, Mark, 2012. "Do reservation wages react to regional unemployment?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201222, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Reinhold Kosfeld & Christian Dreger, 2018. "Local and spatial cointegration in the wage curve – a spatial panel analysis for german regions," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(1), pages 53-75, February.
    3. Joan Daouli & Michael Demoussis & Nicholas Giannakopoulos & Ioannis Laliotis, 2017. "The wage curve before and during the Greek economic crisis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 59-77, February.
    4. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2015. "The reservation wage curve: Evidence from the UK," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 22-24.
    5. Baltagi, Badi H. & Rokicki, Bartlomiej, 2014. "The spatial Polish wage curve with gender effects: Evidence from the Polish Labor Survey," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 36-47.
    6. Raul Ramos & Catia Nicodemo & Esteve Sanromá, 2015. "A spatial panel wage curve for Spain," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 125-139, July.
    7. Mark J. Holmes & Jesús Otero, 2022. "The wage curve within and across regions: new insights from a pairwise view of US states," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 2069-2089, May.
    8. Rokicki, Bartlomiej & Blien, Uwe & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D. & thi Hong Van, Phan, 2021. "Is there a wage curve with regional real wages? An analysis for the US and Poland," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Hynninen, Sanna-Mari, 2009. "Is there a wage curve for the highly educated?," ISER Working Paper Series 2009-17, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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