Wage flexibility and the Great Recession: the response of the Irish labour market

"There is considerable debate about the role of wage rigidity in explaining unemployment. Despite a large body of empirical work, no consensus has emerged on the extent of wage rigidity. Previous attempts to empirically examine wage rigidity have been hampered by small samples and measurement e...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Doris, Aedin, O'Neill, Donal, Sweetman, Olive
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Maynooth 2013
NUI
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19122096124919402789-Wage-flexibility-and-the-Great.htm
_version_ 1771659899849146368
author Doris, Aedin
O'Neill, Donal
Sweetman, Olive
author_facet Doris, Aedin
O'Neill, Donal
Sweetman, Olive
collection Library items
description "There is considerable debate about the role of wage rigidity in explaining unemployment. Despite a large body of empirical work, no consensus has emerged on the extent of wage rigidity. Previous attempts to empirically examine wage rigidity have been hampered by small samples and measurement error. In this paper we examine nominal wage flexibility in Ireland both in the build up to, and during the Great Recession. The Irish case is particularly interesting because it has been one of the countries most affected by the crisis. Our main analysis is based on earnings data for the entire population of workers in Ireland taken from tax returns, which are free of reporting error. We find a substantial degree of downward wage flexibility in the pre-crisis period. We also observe a significant change in wage dynamics since the crisis began; the proportion of workers receiving wage cuts more than doubled and the proportion receiving wage freezes increased substantially. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in wage changes, with a significant proportion of workers continuing to receive pay rises at the same time as other were receiving pay cuts."
format TEXT
geographic Ireland
id 19122096124919402789_04ffc4cc80dd4da2be142c6f6765cba9
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19122096124919402789_04ffc4cc80dd4da2be142c6f6765cba9
is_hierarchy_title Wage flexibility and the Great Recession: the response of the Irish labour market
language English
physical 31 p.
Digital
publishDate 2013
publisher Maynooth
NUI
spellingShingle Doris, Aedin
O'Neill, Donal
Sweetman, Olive
economic recession
labour market
wage policy
wages
Wage flexibility and the Great Recession: the response of the Irish labour market
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=109825792700
title Wage flexibility and the Great Recession: the response of the Irish labour market
topic economic recession
labour market
wage policy
wages
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19122096124919402789-Wage-flexibility-and-the-Great.htm