IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/214.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adjustment and the labor market

Author

Listed:
  • Fallon, Peter R.
  • Riveros, Luis A.

Abstract

How has the labor market responded to changes in macroeconomic conditions and related government policies? And to what extent has government intervention affected the microeconomic functioning of the labor market. Geographical immobility of workers does not seem to hinder adjustment. Labor is increasingly deployed in nontradables and import competing sectors, however, and problems of mobility between tradables and nontradables are reported. In addition, shortages of skilled manpower are reported. There is little evidence of wage resistence where wage indexation is not institutionalized. Traditional methods of wage support have become less important in the past two decades. Where effective minimum wage policies exist, they have the expected distortionary effects. Wage differences between the public and private sectors, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, have continued to widen, and the efficiency of the public sector has declined as a result. Job security regulations may be an obstacle to structural adjustment programs insofar as they hinder the release of labor from contracting sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Fallon, Peter R. & Riveros, Luis A., 1989. "Adjustment and the labor market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 214, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1989/06/01/000009265_3960927231101/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mincer, Jacob, 1976. "Unemployment Effects of Minimum Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 87-104, August.
    2. Sebastian Edwards, 1988. "Temporary Terms of Trade Disturbances, The Real Exchange Rate and the Current Account," NBER Working Papers 2629, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bruno, Michael, 1976. "The Two-Sector Open Economy and the Real Exchange Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 566-577, September.
    4. Martin Prachowny, 1981. "Macroeconomic Analysis for Small Open Economies," Working Paper 445, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    5. Sebastian Edwards, 1990. "Capital Flows, Foreign Direct Investment, and Debt-Equity Swaps in Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 3497, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pierre‐Richard Agénor, 2004. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 351-408, July.
    2. repec:ilo:ilowps:282251 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Caballero, Ricardo J. & Hammour, Mohamad L., 1996. "On the ills of adjustment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 161-192, October.
    4. Horton, Susan & Kanbur, Ravi & Mazumdar, Dipak, 1991. "Labor markets in an era of adjustment : an overview," Policy Research Working Paper Series 694, The World Bank.
    5. Palle S. Andersen, 1991. "Labour market developments in developing countries," BIS Working Papers 16, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Bell, Linda A., 1995. "The impact of minimum wages in Mexico and Colombia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1514, The World Bank.
    7. Infante R., 1991. "Labour market adjustment in Latin America: an appraisal of the social effects in the 1980s," ILO Working Papers 992822513402676, International Labour Organization.
    8. Fiszbein, Ariel, 1992. "Do workers in the informal sector benefit from cuts in the minimum wage?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 826, The World Bank.
    9. repec:ilo:ilowps:297942 is not listed 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. Holzer, Harry J., 2008. "Living Wage Laws: How Much Do (Can) They Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 3781, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Rosen, Sherwin, 1985. "Implicit Contracts: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 1144-1175, September.
    3. Samara Ahmed & Adil E. Rajput & Akila Sarirete & Asma Aljaberi & Ohoud Alghanem & Abrar Alsheraigi, 2020. "Studying Unemployment Effects on Mental Health: Social Media versus the Traditional Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Lemos Sara, 2005. "Political Variables as Instruments for the Minimum Wage," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-31, December.
    5. Casanova, Luis. & Jiménez, Maribel. & Jiménez, Mónica., 2015. "Calidad del empleo y cumplimiento del salario mínimo en Argentina," ILO Working Papers 994891263402676, International Labour Organization.
    6. Michael J. Dueker, 1995. "Tariffs and asset market structure: some basic comparative dynamics," Working Papers 1995-009, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    7. World Bank, 2005. "Labor Market Adjustment, Reform and Productivity in Colombia : What are the Factors that Matter? Volume 2 : Technical Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 8406, The World Bank Group.
    8. Graciela Moguillansky, 1995. "¿Existe una Brecha Respecto del Sendero de Equilibrio Cambiario en el Perú? Un Análisis Empírico para el Período 1980-1994," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 32(97), pages 379-410.
    9. Dany Brouillette & Calista Cheung & Daniel Gao & Olivier Gervais, 2017. "The Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases on the Canadian Economy," Staff Analytical Notes 17-26, Bank of Canada.
    10. Timothy J. Goodspeed & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Li Zhang, 2006. "Attracting FDI: Are Other Government Policies More Important than Taxation in Attracting FDI?," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 414, Hunter College Department of Economics.
    11. Bosch, Mariano & Manacorda, Marco, 2008. "Minimum wages and earnings inequality in urban Mexico. Revisiting the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Heijdra, Ben J. & Ligthart, Jenny E., 2010. "The Transitional Dynamics Of Fiscal Policy In Small Open Economies," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 1-28, February.
    13. David Neumark & J.M. Ian Salas & William Wascher, 2013. "Revisiting the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?," NBER Working Papers 18681, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Luis Eduardo Arango & Paula Herrera & Carlos Esteban Posada, 2008. "El salario mínimo: aspectos generales sobre los casos de Colombia y otros países," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 26(56), pages 204-263, June.
    15. Milena - Jana Schank, 2016. "The Impact of Economic Sentiments on Foreign Direct Investments," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 605-610, February.
    16. Pandelis Mitsis, 2019. "The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Wages and Work in Cyprus," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(2), pages 72-101, December.
    17. Jonathan Temple, 2002. "The Costs of Dualism," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 02/532, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    18. Sara Lemos, 2004. "A Menu of Minimum Wage Variables for Evaluating Wages and Employment Effects: Evidence from Brazil," Discussion Papers in Economics 04/3, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    19. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2101-2163 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Asiedu, Elizabeth, 2002. "On the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries: Is Africa Different?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 107-119, January.
    21. Gabriel Mougani, 2012. "Working Paper 144 - An Analysis of the Impact of Financial Integration on Economic Activity and Macroeconomic Volatility in Africa within the Financial Globalization Context," Working Paper Series 375, African Development Bank.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:214. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.