Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority?

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? PDF Author: Joseph G. Altonji
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor turnover
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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The extent to which wages rise with the accumulation of seniority(tenure) in a firm after one controls for total labor market experience is a fundamental question about the structure of earnings. A variety of studies have found a large, positive partial effect of tenure on wages. This paper re-examines the evidence using a simple instrumental variables scheme to deal with well known estimation biases which arise from the fact that tenure is likely to be related to unobserved individual and job characteristics affecting the wage. We use the variation of tenure over a given job match as the principal instrumental variable for tenure. The variation intenure over the job, in contrast to variation in tenure across individuals and jobs, is uncorrelated by construction with the fixed individual specific and job match specific components of the error term of the wage equation. Our main findingis that the partial effect of tenure on wages is small, and that general labor market experience and job shopping in the labor market account for most wage growth over a career. The strong cross section relationship between tenure and wages is due primarily to heterogeneity bias

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority?

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? PDF Author: Joseph G. Altonji
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor turnover
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
The extent to which wages rise with the accumulation of seniority(tenure) in a firm after one controls for total labor market experience is a fundamental question about the structure of earnings. A variety of studies have found a large, positive partial effect of tenure on wages. This paper re-examines the evidence using a simple instrumental variables scheme to deal with well known estimation biases which arise from the fact that tenure is likely to be related to unobserved individual and job characteristics affecting the wage. We use the variation of tenure over a given job match as the principal instrumental variable for tenure. The variation intenure over the job, in contrast to variation in tenure across individuals and jobs, is uncorrelated by construction with the fixed individual specific and job match specific components of the error term of the wage equation. Our main findingis that the partial effect of tenure on wages is small, and that general labor market experience and job shopping in the labor market account for most wage growth over a career. The strong cross section relationship between tenure and wages is due primarily to heterogeneity bias

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority?

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
We provide new estimates of the return to job seniority using data similar to that used by Abraham and Farber (1987), Altonji and Shakotko (1987) and Topel (1991) as well as a new PSID sample. Topel's use of a wage and a tenure that refer to different years, his use of the Current Population Survey to detrend the PSID, and differences between Altonji and Shakotko's estimator and Topel's estimator explain the fact that Topel obtains much larger estimates. The evidence from the data used by AS and Topel points to an effect of ten years of tenure on the log wage equal to .11, which is above AS's preferred estimate of .066 but far below Topel's estimate. However, this estimate is probably biased upward by the wage measure used in all three studies. We also obtain a modest estimate of the return to seniority using data for 1983-1991

Specific Capital, Mobility, and Wages

Specific Capital, Mobility, and Wages PDF Author: Robert H. Topel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Human capital
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority?

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? - The Swiss Case

Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? - The Swiss Case PDF Author: Cornelia Luchsinger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Job Duration, Seniority, and Earnings

Job Duration, Seniority, and Earnings PDF Author: Katharine G Abraham
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781019948279
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book explores the relationship between job duration, seniority, and earnings. Drawing on research in labor economics, the authors provide a comprehensive guide to understanding the factors that influence earnings over time. Economists and researchers will find this book to be an essential resource. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Why are Wages Upward Sloping with Tenure?

Why are Wages Upward Sloping with Tenure? PDF Author: Joachim Prinz
Publisher: Rainer Hampp Verlag
ISBN: 9783879888511
Category : Wages
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
One of the most stylized facts in labor economics is the finding that wages tend to rise with job duration but what is the role of productivity between this relation? Intuitively, it seems rather unspectacular that experienced workers' earnings are higher than otherwise comparable junior workers', but economic literature offers three competing theories explaining this phenomenon. A unique database from a single professional sports industry, covering the past decade of player performance and wages in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is used to test the superiority of one model over others in explaining players' upwards sloping age-earnings profiles. The empirical results show little evidence of the notion that player wages are solely determined on the basis of their productivity. Findings are rather in accordance with shirking and matching ideas: Returns to tenure are found to be significant but it's magnitude is reduced when the spurious bias - stemming from OLS - is controlled for. The fact that tenure remains considerably large - unaffected of productivity - but is simultaneously mitigated due to job match specific effects, is in harmony with incentive and matching arguments.Joachim Prinz, born 1971, studied economics at the University of Trier, Copenhagen Business School and American University, Washington D.C. From 1999-2001 he was a scientific co-worker at the University of Greifswald, Department of Economics. Since 2001 University of Witten/ Herdecke.

The Structure of Wages

The Structure of Wages PDF Author: Edward P. Lazear
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226470512
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
The distribution of income, the rate of pay raises, and the mobility of employees is crucial to understanding labor economics. Although research abounds on the distribution of wages across individuals in the economy, wage differentials within firms remain a mystery to economists. The first effort to examine linked employer-employee data across countries, The Structure of Wages:An International Comparison analyzes labor trends and their institutional background in the United States and eight European countries. A distinguished team of contributors reveal how a rising wage variance rewards star employees at a higher rate than ever before, how talent becomes concentrated in a few firms over time, and how outside market conditions affect wages in the twenty-first century. From a comparative perspective that examines wage and income differences within and between countries such as Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, this volume will be required reading for economists and those working in industrial organization.

Job Duration, Seniority, and Earnings

Job Duration, Seniority, and Earnings PDF Author: Katharine G. Abraham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor supply
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
The stylized fact that seniority and earnings in a cross-section are positively related, even after controlling for total labor market experience, has served as the basis for theoretical analyses of implicit labor contracts suggesting that workers post bonds in the form of deferred compensation in order to ensure their continued performance at an adequate level. An alternative interpretation is that good workers or workers in good jobs or good matches both earn more throughout the job and have longer job durations. Another stylized fact, that labor market experience and earnings in a cross section are positively related, has been taken as evidence of the importance of general human capital accumulation. An alternative interpretation of this evidence is that workers with more experience have had more time to find good jobs and/or good matches, resulting in higher earnings. Earnings functions are estimated including a measure of the completed duration of jobs in order to distinguish between the competing hypotheses regarding both seniority and experience. These yield three main results. First, workers in longer jobs earn significantly more in every year of the job than do workers in shorter jobs. Second, controlling for completed job duration eliminates most of the apparent return to seniority found in standard cross-section models. Thus, it appears that implicit contracts that provide for workers posting bonds through deferred wage payments are less important than has been believed. Third, for blue collar workers there is evidence thata part of the small observed (cross-sectional) return to labor market experience is due to sorting of workers into better jobs over time. There is no evidence of sorting for white collar workers

Why Wages Don't Fall during a Recession

Why Wages Don't Fall during a Recession PDF Author: Truman F. BEWLEY
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674020901
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
A deep question in economics is why wages and salaries don't fall during recessions. This is not true of other prices, which adjust relatively quickly to reflect changes in demand and supply. Although economists have posited many theories to account for wage rigidity, none is satisfactory. Eschewing "top-down" theorizing, Truman Bewley explored the puzzle by interviewing--during the recession of the early 1990s--over three hundred business executives and labor leaders as well as professional recruiters and advisors to the unemployed. By taking this approach, gaining the confidence of his interlocutors and asking them detailed questions in a nonstructured way, he was able to uncover empirically the circumstances that give rise to wage rigidity. He found that the executives were averse to cutting wages of either current employees or new hires, even during the economic downturn when demand for their products fell sharply. They believed that cutting wages would hurt morale, which they felt was critical in gaining the cooperation of their employees and in convincing them to internalize the managers' objectives for the company. Bewley's findings contradict most theories of wage rigidity and provide fascinating insights into the problems businesses face that prevent labor markets from clearing. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Methods 3. Time and Location 4. Morale 5. Company Risk Aversion 6. Internal Pay Structure 7. External Pay Structure 8. The Shirking Theory 9. The Pay of New Hires in the Primary Sector 10. Raises 11. Resistance to Pay Reduction 12. Experiences with Pay Reduction 13. Layoffs 14. Severance Benefits 15. Hiring 16. Voluntary Turnover 17. The Secondary Sector 18. The Unemployed 19. Information, Wage Rigidity, and Labor Negotiations 20. Existing Theories 21. Remarks on Theory 22. Whereto from Here? Notes References Index Reviews of this book: In Why Wages Don't Fall During A Recession, [Truman Bewley] tackles one of the oldest, and most controversial, puzzles in economics: why nominal wages rarely fall (and real wages do not fall enough) when unemployment is high. But he does so in a novel way, through interviews with over 300 businessmen, union leaders, job recruiters and unemployment counsellors in the north-eastern United States during the early 1990s recession...Mr. Bewley concludes that employers resist pay cuts largely because the savings from lower wages are usually outweighed by the cost of denting workers' morale: pay cuts hit workers' standard of living and lower their self-esteem. Falling morale raises staff turnover and reduces productivity...Mr. Bewley's theory has some interesting implications...[and] has a ring of truth to it. --The Economist Reviews of this book: This contribution to the growing literature on behavioral macroeconomics threatens to disturb the tranquil state of macroeconomic theory that has prevailed in recent years...Bewley's argument will be hard for conventional macroeconomists to ignore, partly because of the extraordinary thoroughness and honesty with which he evidently conducted his investigation, and the sheer volume of evidence he provides...Although Bewley's work will not settle the substantive debates related to wage rigidity, it is likely to have a profound influence on the way macroeconomists construct models. In particular, the concepts of morale, fairness, and money illusion are almost certain to play a big role in macroeconomic theory. His demonstration that there exist in reality simple, robust behavioral patters that cannot plausibly be founded on traditional maximizing behabior also raises the prospect of a more empirically oriented, more behavioral macroeconomics in the future. --Peter Howitt, journal of Economic Literature Reviews of this book: I think any scholar interested in labour markets and wage determination should read this well-written, lively, and highly stimulating book...[It] provides a fresh view and a lot of complementary background knowledge about how experienced people in the field see the employment relationship and what is actually crucial. Knowledge of this sort is all too rare in economics, and Truman Bewley's truly impressive study can serve as a role model for future investigations. --Simon G'chter, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics To call this book a breath of fresh air is an understatement. The direct insights are fascinating, and Truman Bewley's use of them is sharp and insightful. Labor economists and macroeconomists have a lot to think about. --Robert M. Solow, Nobel Laureate, Institute Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Truman Bewley set out to conduct a handful of interviews with business executives to gain some theoretical inspiration, and his project blossomed into over 300 interviews with business people, labor leaders and consultants. He is truly the accidental interviewer of economics. Time and again, he found that workers behave like people, not atomistic, selfish economic agents. His insights will engage and enrage economic theorists and empiricists for years to come. --Alan Krueger, Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University