Wage Bargaining Regimes and Firms' Adjustments to the Great Recession

38 Pages Posted: 16 May 2017

See all articles by Maddalena Ronchi

Maddalena Ronchi

Independent

Filippo di Mauro

National University of Singapore (NUS)

Date Written: May 3, 2017

Abstract

The paper aims at investigating to what extent wage negotiation set-ups have shaped up firms’ response to the Great Recession, taking a firm-level cross-country perspective. We contribute to the literature by building a new micro-distributed database which merges data related to wage bargaining institutions (Wage Dynamic Network, WDN) with data on firm productivity and other relevant firm characteristics (CompNet). We use the database to study how firms reacted to the Great Recession in terms of variation in profits, wages, and employment. The paper shows that, in line with the theoretical predictions, centralized bargaining systems – as opposed to decentralized/firm level based ones – were accompanied by stronger downward wage rigidity, as well as cuts in employment and profits.

Keywords: productivity, wage bargaining, firm level analysis, global financial crisis

JEL Classification: J30, J50, D22, D61

Suggested Citation

Ronchi, Maddalena and di Mauro, Filippo, Wage Bargaining Regimes and Firms' Adjustments to the Great Recession (May 3, 2017). ECB Working Paper No. 2051, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2968921 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2968921

Filippo Di Mauro

National University of Singapore (NUS) ( email )

1E Kent Ridge Road
NUHS Tower Block Level 7
Singapore, 119228
Singapore

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