IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssb/dispap/270.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Skill Mismatch on Wages in a small open Economy with Centralized Wage Setting: The Norwegian Case

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Pervasive skill-biased technological changes, probably from trade in computer technology, have visualized the pros and cons of wage setting centralization in small open economies. Skill mismatch has increased in countries with wage rigidity. As a small open economy with centralized wage setting, Norway is a particularly interesting case. Indeed, this analysis shows that skill\mismatch has increased and is long-lived because of low focus on skill-specific imbalances in wage settlements. The conclusions are drawn on the basis of an econometric analysis of the determinants of wages to workers in five educational categories in Norwegian manufacturing. Furthermore, I estimate a 15 per cent drop in equilibrium wages to workers with higher university education after 1987, a period of recentralization of collective bargaining.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Bjørnstad, 2000. "The Effect of Skill Mismatch on Wages in a small open Economy with Centralized Wage Setting: The Norwegian Case," Discussion Papers 270, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:270
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ssb.no/a/publikasjoner/pdf/DP/dp270.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Machin, Stephen, 1996. "Wage Inequality in the UK," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 47-64, Spring.
    2. Nickell, Stephen J & Wadhwani, Sushil, 1990. "Insider Forces and Wage Determination," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 496-509, June.
    3. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    4. Nymoen, Ragnar, 1989. "Modelling Wages in the Small Open Economy: An Error-Correction Model of Norwegian Manufacturing Wages," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(3), pages 239-258, August.
    5. Kjersti-Gro Lindquist & Terje Skjerpen, 2000. "Explaining the change in skill structure of labour demand in Norwegian manufacturing," Discussion Papers 293, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    6. Lawrence F. Katz & Ana L. Revenga, 1989. "Changes in the Structure of Wages: The U.S. versus Japan," NBER Working Papers 3021, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Marco Manacorda & Barbara Petrongolo, 1999. "Skill Mismatch and Unemployment in OECD Countries Marco Manacorda," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 66(262), pages 181-207, May.
    8. Salvanes, K.G. & Forre, S.E., 1999. "Job Destruction, Heterogeneous Workers, Trade and Technical Change: Matched Worker/Plant Data Evidence from Norway," Papers 15/99, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration-.
    9. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1995. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages in Four OECD Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 25-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Levy, Frank & Murnane, Richard J, 1996. "With What Skills Are Computers a Complement?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 258-262, May.
    11. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1993. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages," NBER Working Papers 4297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Paul R. Krugman, 1994. "Past and prospective causes of high unemployment," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Jan, pages 49-98.
    13. Machin, Steve, 1994. "Changes in the Relative Demand for Skills in the UK Labour Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 952, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Nickell, Stephen & Bell, Brian, 1995. "The Collapse in Demand for the Unskilled and Unemployment across the OECD," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 40-62, Spring.
    15. Freeman, Richard B. & Katz, Lawrence F. (ed.), 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226261607, April.
    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. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    2. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Cross-Country Inequality Trends," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 121-149, February.
    3. Alan Carruth & Bill Collier & Andy Dickerson, 1999. "Inter-industry Wage Differences and Individual Heterogeneity: How Competitive is Wage Setting in the UK?," Studies in Economics 9914, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    4. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    5. Snower, Dennis J., 1999. "Inequality of Earnings," CEPR Discussion Papers 2321, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Åsa Rosén & Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Higher Education Levels, Firms’ Outside Options and the Wage Structure," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(4), pages 621-654, December.
    7. J. Mullen & Stephen Nord & Martin Williams, 2005. "Regional Skill Structure and the Diffusion of Technology," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(1), pages 115-131, March.
    8. Puhani, Patrick A., 2003. "A Test of the 'Krugman Hypothesis' for the United States, Britain, and Western Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-18, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Roger Bjørnstad & Terje Skjerpen, 2003. "Technology, Trade and Inequality," Discussion Papers 364, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    10. Pablo Burriel-Llombart & Jonathan Thomas, 2001. "Skill imbalances in the UK labour market: 1979-99," Bank of England working papers 145, Bank of England.
    11. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    12. Dennis Snower, 1996. "The modern welfare state: Problems and suggested reforms," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 207-226, October.
    13. Puhani, Patrick A., 2001. "Wage rigidities in Western Germany? Microeconometric evidence from the 1990s," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-36, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Bjornstad, Roger & Skjerpen, Terje, 2006. "Trade and inequality in wages and unemployment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 20-44, January.
    15. Patrick A. Puhani, 2008. "Transatlantic Differences in Labour Markets: Changes in Wage and Non‐Employment Structures in the 1980s and the 1990s," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(3), pages 312-338, August.
    16. Galiani, Sebastian & Sanguinetti, Pablo, 2003. "The impact of trade liberalization on wage inequality: evidence from Argentina," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 497-513, December.
    17. Mariacristina Piva & Marco Vivarelli, 2004. "The determinants of the skill bias in Italy: R&D, organisation or globalisation?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 329-347.
    18. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    19. Wasmer, Etienne, 1998. "Labor Supply Dynamics, Unemployment and Human Capital Investments," Seminar Papers 651, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    20. Bellmann, Lutz & Gartner, Hermann, 2003. "Fakten zur Entwicklung der qualifikatorischen und sektoralen Lohnstruktur (Facts on the development of the qualification-related and sectoral wage structure)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 493-508.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skill mismatch; wage flexibility; centralized wage setting; wage curve.;
    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
    • E64 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Incomes Policy; Price Policy
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:ssb:dispap:270. 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: L Maasø (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ssbgvno.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.