Skill sorting, inter-industry skill wage premium, and production chains: evidence from India 1999-2000

This paper proposes a mechanism that links industry’s technological characteristics (i.e. quality of non-labor inputs, which is proxied by the length of industry production chains), industry-specific skill wage premium, and skill sorting across industries. It is hypothesized that high-skilled workers are sorted into industries where they can receive a higher skill wage premium, by working with better quality non-labor input. The quality of non-labor inputs is assumed to be worse in industries with longer production chains due to the increased involvement of low-skilled labor and poor infrastructure over the sequential production. By examining Indian wage and employment data for 1999-2000, empirical evidence to support this mechanism can be obtained: First, the skill wage premium is lower [higher] in industries with longer [shorter] production chains. Second, the skill wage premium is lower [higher] in industries with a higher [lower] proportion of low-skilled workers producing inputs outside their own industry. Third, the proportion of high-skilled workers is larger in industries with shorter production chains and lower ratio of low-skilled labor involved, i.e., a skill sorting trend can be observed.

Trade policy and wage inequality in Chile since the 1990s

Includes bibliography

Salarios de eficiencia en un modelo de crecimiento económico

En este artÌculo se introducen los salarios de eÖciencia como microfundamento para explicar la existencia de desempleo involuntario permanente y la rigidez de los salarios a la baja. Los salarios de eÖciencia se incorporan en un modelo de crecimiento econÛmico de generaciones traslapadas, en el cual se puede alcanzar un equilibrio de largo plazo en el que existe desempleo involuntario permanente, explicado por la rigidez de los salarios.

Diferencial de salários e produtividade no setor de serviços brasileiro

This paper provides new information about inter-industry wage di§erentials in Brazil. Using data from the National Survey Sample of Households, we can see that from 1983 to 1995 the relative average wage of the service sector compared to the goods sector decreased, whereas from 1995 to 2007 it increased at a higher level than the previous decrease. After controlling for a variety of work characteristics, we can still see the positive evolution of rel- ative ages in the service sector. We conclude that this development has some explanations: the period of economic growth and stabilization that started after 1994 generated a positive income e§ect, and the service sector beneÖted more from it. Also, the structural transfor- mation that the developed countries already went through still hasn¥t Önished in Brazil. That probably helped improving relative wages in the service sector and it¥s expected the continuation of this process, so as the structural transformation evolves inter-industry wage di§erentials will converge.

Rent-sharing in Brazil: using trade liberalization as a natural experiment

This paper examines the extent of rent-sharing in Brazil, between 1988 and 1995, combining two different data sets: annual industrial surveys (pIA) and annual household surveys (PNADs). The aim is to use the trade liberalization policies that took place in Brazil in the early 1990s as a "natural experiment" to examine the impact ofproduct market rents on wages. We first estimate inter-industry wage differentials in Brazil, using the household surveys, afier controlling for various observable workers' characteristics. In a reduced form fixed effects equation, these controlled inter-industry differentials are seen to depend on the industries' rate of effective tariff. We also find that LSDV estimates of the effect of value-added per worker (computed using the industrial surveys) on the wage differentials are positive, but somewhat small. However, we find that instrumenting the valued-added with the effective tariffs more than doubles the estimated rent-sharing coefficient. The paper concludes that rent-sharing is prevalent in the Brazilian manufacturing sector, and this mechanism transferred part of the productivity gains due to trade liberalization to manufacturing workers in the form ofhigher (controlled) wage premium.

Jamaica: Employer size and worker remuneration in the private sector

Includes bibliography.

Firm dynamics in the Cambodian garment industry: firm turnover, productivity growth, and wage profile under trade liberalization

The international garment trade was liberalized in 2005 following the termination of the MFA (Multifibre Arrangement) and ever since then, price competition has intensified. Employing a unique firm dataset collected by the authors, this paper examines the changes in the performance of Cambodian garment firms between 2002/03 and 2008/09. During the period concerned, frequent firm turnover led to an improvement of the industry’s productivity, and the study found that the average total-factor productivity (TFP) of new entrants was substantially higher than that of exiting firms. Furthermore, we observed that thanks to productivity growth, an improvement in workers’ welfare, including a rise in the relative wages of the low-skilled, was taking place. These industrial dynamics differ considerably from those indicated by the “race to the bottom” argument as applied to labor-intensive industrialization in low income countries.

Technical efficiency in the retail food industry: the influence of inventory investment, wage levels, and age of the firm

The objective of this paper is to estimate technical efficiency in retailing; and the influence of inventory investment, wage levels, and firm age on this efficiency. We use the output supermarket chains’ sales volume, calculated isolating the retailer price effect on its sales revenue. This output allows us to estimate a strictly technical concept of efficiency. The methodology is based on the estimation of a stochastic parametric function. The empirical analyses applied to panel data on a sample of 42 supermarket chains between 2000 and 2002 show that inventory investment and wage level have an impact on technical efficiency. In comparison, the effect of these factors on efficiency calculated through a monetary output (sales revenue) shows some differences that could be due to aspects related to product prices.

Shop collective bargaining: a study of wage determination in the men's garment industry

by Francis Joseph Haas.

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment in other newly covered activities industry in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-381."

Data pertinent to a review of minimum wage rates established under the Fair labor standards act for newly covered employment in the banking, insurance, and finance industry in Puerto Rico /

Alternate pages blank.

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment newly covered by the amendments of 1966 in the construction industry in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-641."

The restaurant and food service industry in Puerto Rico : data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment newly covered by the amendments of 1966 /

"WH67-669."