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The following is a list of possible subjects for the special issue, although any submission that is related to the topic is welcome: The COVID-19 pandemic and its high costs are not simply an act of nature. Special Issue Collective: Sara Cantillon*, Elif Karaçimen*, Lawrence King, David Kotz, Jeff Powell, Juan Santarcángelo*, Nuno Teles [*RRPE Editorial Board Member] B EXTENDED DEADLINE for Submissions: August 31, 2023 b The COVID-19 pandemic has not only shown inherent flaws in the capitalist system but also deepened them. [Extracted from the article]

The following is a list of possible subjects for the special issue, although any submission that is related to the topic is welcomed: The COVID-19 pandemic and its high costs are not simply an act of nature. Special Issue Collective: Sara Cantillon*, Elif Karaçimen*, Lawrence King, David Kotz*, Jeff Powell, Juan Santarcángelo*, Nuno Teles [*RRPE Editorial Board Member] B Deadline for Submissions: December 31, 2022 b The COVID-19 pandemic has not only shown inherent flaws in the capitalist system but also deepened them. [Extracted from the article]

• I test competing growth and income distribution theories in a panel of OECD economies. • Evidence of bidirectional association between labor productivity and real wages supports the induced technical change and efficiency wages theories over the marginal productivity theory. • Employment is weakly exogenous in this three-dimensional system, suggesting that OECD economies as a group have been labor-constrained during the study period. • Increases in labor productivity are associated with higher employment, but this effect is probably driven by the reallocation of workers moving from sectors technologically intensive to lagging sectors. • Results suggest a factor substitution effect from raises in real wages on employment, generating job destruction due to increased labor costs, but only in the short run and not in the long run. This work investigates the relationship between labor productivity (LP), real wage (RW), and employment (EMP). The paper's main goal is to test competing theories of growth and income distribution. Standard theory predicts that RW should increase following increases in LP. Alternative theories and efficiency wage theories suggest that the distribution causes changes in LP. Theory delivers ambiguous predictions regarding the ultimate effects on EMP, which can be either negative if factor substitution prevails or positive if higher RW and LP generate additional aggregate demand and, therefore, EMP. I study a panel of 25 OECD economies by performing single and multi-equation approaches. My first key result is a positive two-way association between LP and RW, supporting the induced technical change and efficiency wages theories over the marginal productivity theory. My second relevant finding is that EMP is weakly exogenous, suggesting that OECD countries have been labor-constrained for the period under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the potential responses of international labor mobility to the recent COVID-19 health shocks, using a New Economic Geography model inspired by recent events in Central and North America. The model suggests that the restraining impact of COVID-19 on migratory flows may retain potential emigrants in Mexico and Central America, enlarge the home market in the region, attract foreign and local businesses, and increase real wages. Moreover, this prediction unveils opportunities for the future from the opening of new, regular migratory pathways between Central America and Mexico. These would concentrate population and industry in Mexico, raise the market potential in the area and boost real wages in Mexico – and possibly in Central America as well – despite the partial deindustrialization of the Central American hinterland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a model in which the relation between the real exchange rate and the real wage, in the context of conflictive income distribution, is made explicit. It is noted that the central bank tries to regulate the distributive relation exchange rate and real wages through the changes in the interest rate. The theoretical point is that, under certain circumstances, a relatively depreciated or high level of the real exchange rate might reduce real wages and have a negative impact on economic growth. The paper also provides some evidence for the Argentine case, and suggests that the Classical Developmentalist elasticity pessimism seems, in the case of Argentina, to be validated. Also, the use of the exchange rate as an instrument to bolster redistribution away from the working class, and to promote investment and growth is also not born in the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper captures the labor market consequences of the Gaza Blockade (2007–), a politically motivated and unanticipated event that provides a rare opportunity for a natural experiment. I am aided by the fact that the West Bank is a natural comparison group for examining the Gaza Blockade. Using a difference-in-difference framework, I find that, relative to domestic workers in the West Bank, those in Gaza experienced an additional 11% point increase in the unemployment rate and an additional 13–20% reduction in real wages. The long-term effect (3 years later), on real wages was at least 1.5 times larger. Rising wage inequality was another consequence of the Blockade, which manifested itself in an upsurge in industry wage differentials and to a lesser extent, the skill premium. This paper also discusses the impact of the crisis on the sectoral composition of the Gazan economy, particularly as a result of the severe contraction of non-service industries in the private sector. While the Gaza Blockade constitutes an extreme case of a massive economic shock and a radical departure from the close economic integration experienced in earlier decades, the results of this study can nevertheless serve to shed light on how other open economies are likely to respond to the increasingly common imposition of restrictions on trade and factor mobility such as economic sanctions, visa restrictions, and trade wars. The effects of such barriers to trade and labor mobility are particularly dire in the absence of labor reforms designed to mitigate their adverse effects. KEYWORDS: Middle East; conflict; economic development; labour; wages; trade [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research estimated the effect of real wage and exchange rate fluctuation on the demand for residential housing in African countries. This paper selected ten African nations and applied pooled Mean Group (PMG) method to identify the effects of real wage and exchange rate fluctuation together with movements in interest rates on demand for residential housing among African countries between 2008 and 2020. The results display that the low level of the real wage together with FX market variation in Africa hurt the holding of residential buildings in these countries. Real wages contribute positively but less significantly to holding a residential building in Africa. In effect, when real wages are minimum and insufficient, the acquisition of residential buildings becomes unaffordable. And this could result in a cyclicality of declining purchasing power considering the upward dynamism that goes with demand for residential housing which most often in the long run, results in another round of price inflation. Variations in exchange rates had significantly hindered demand for residential housing in Africa in the period covered by the study. Interest rates also contributed significant adverse impact on holding residential housing. Changes in interest rates were found to have negatively influenced the purchase of residential properties. The reason is that with highly volatile short-term bank lending rates, the cost of acquiring a mortgage to purchase a residential building becomes highly overpriced. This in turn creates a lower demand for residential housing. The speed of adjustment of the demand for residential housing function to equilibrium in the case of disequilibrium in the short run is 72.9%. We do advocate for policies capable of removing the import-dependence status of these countries to reduce the exchange rate fluctuations and hike in inflation rates to avoid a likelihood of cyclicality considering the dynamism that goes with demand for residential housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of trade sanctions on the relative demand for skilled labor and wages by using Iranian industrial manufacturing data covering 7 years before and 7 years after the sanction year. The decomposition of the change in the aggregate demand for skilled labor sheds light on the fact that it comes from labor reallocation within industries, not from across industries. The trade sanctions adversely affected both exporters' and non-exporters' total factor productivity; however, non-exporters endured a larger negative impact. As a result of the significant reduction in industries' total factor productivity, the relative demand for skilled labor decreases which results in a decrease in the real wage per-worker as well. Furthermore, exporters, compared to non-exporters, are responsible for more changes in the relative demand for skilled labor, are faster in changing skills, and their change in skills have a greater impact on the real wage per-worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is a case of the achievement of a high share of wind energy integration to an interconnected power system in an emerging market. A series of successful energy supply programmes and a strong renewable-oriented finance framework implemented since 2002, have promoted alternative renewables – wind installed capacity increased over 22-fold from 927 MW in 2011 to 21 GW in 2022, reaching 11.77% of total procured power. From this, about 90% are concentrated in Brazil's least developed region, the Northeast, where wind investment should create jobs and propel socioeconomic development. Despite that, there is no studies specific assessing the regional and economy-wide effects of those programmes, gap that this paper aims to fill by applying the regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model TERM-BR10. We assess that by modelling an alternative scenario for the period 2010-19 based on an official electricity matrix built in 2010, that projected 3.4 additional GW of wind power while not considering all the success of renewable policies, against the observed installed capacity expansion, where wind power was 3.7 times higher than what had been planned. Our results show that in the absence of renewable policies, Brazil would have faced economic losses such as GDP (−0.27%) and investment (−4.76%). The Northeast region would have been the most impacted in terms of GDP (−1.3%), real wage (−2.99%) and employment creation (−0.1%). We propose that such socioeconomic co-benefits are incorporated in energy planning, which could promote regional equality through renewable energy expansion. • Wind power capacity increased over 20-fold from 2011 to 2022. • 90% are in the poorest region where policies propel development and job creation. • Policy absence would entail a GDP loss of 0.27% nationally and of 1.3% in the region. • Negative impacts to labour market are mostly over skilled jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of related variety (RV) and unrelated variety (UV) on the basic variables of the labour market, i.e.: employment growth rates, increase in unemployment rates and real gross wages in the regional approach in Poland. The basic difference between the presented and the current research in this area is that the RV and the UV are introduced into the estimation taking into account the basic determinants of the analysed labour market variables resulting from simple economic models. Moreover, an attempt was made to determine the impact of the RV and the UV on real gross wages, which was not covered in the literature. The research was based on panel data for 16 Polish voivodships (NUTS2) and in the group of regions of Western Poland in the years 2004–2017 using SYS-GMM estimator of Dynamic Panel Data Model. In this paper, a significant positive impact of the RV on the rate of employment growth and wages was found, as well as a negative correlation between the RV and the increase in unemployment rates. On the other hand, the UV positively determined the increase in unemployment rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiations over wages have always been a central part of industrial relations in capitalist economies. The unstable value of money in the 19th and 20th centuries has made these negotiations both crucial and complex. Linking contemporary understandings of monetary values to wage bargaining provides an important historical background for a better understanding of real wage developments and the agency of workers. Adopting a comparative perspective, this paper discusses how managers and workers dealt with changing monetary values in Germany and the United States from the 1870s to the immediate aftermath of the First World War. The paper also discusses the extent to which actors understood the instability of their respective currencies' purchasing power and whether their perceptions changed over time. The paper reveals that negotiations were never exclusively shaped and guided by concepts such as inflation or the 'cost of living' in both countries but that the importance of the concepts changed with the level of price fluctuations and institutional setting. Indices could achieve a dominant role only in exceptional circumstances due to their artificial and contestable nature, their neglect of the complexity of workers' job contexts and living environments, and their normative implications concerning wage demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at justifying the significance of investment in the improvement of labour productivity (LP) and importance of the latter on economic performance of companies manufacturing wind energy components (WEC) in Lithuania in terms of value added (VA) created, profitability and wage earned. The time period covered is 2000–2020. The following methods have been employed: analysis of legal acts, programmes, strategies, and business structure and finance indicators, interdependence (correlation and regression), trend, case analysis, logical economical reasoning and graphical representation. The research results of current status analysis showed that the business of WEC manufacturing is small in regard to their variety of products but increasing in terms of VA and employment in Lithuania. Investment has been found as a driver of improvement in LP. The calculated historical ratio of change in LP to investment showed that, on average, after 1000 EUR per employee has been invested in tangible assets (TA), the LP increased by 0.13 EUR/h. A higher than average ratio was found in the manufacture of other transport and repair and installation of machinery and equipment (1.41), such as rubber, plastic and other non-metallic mineral products (0.17), but lower in the manufacture of electronic and communication (0.12) and metal (0.06) products. Taking into account the linear curves of LP to investment in TA curve and the average volumes of investment in different manufacturing activities, it is estimated that LP could grow by 5.3% a year in the manufacture of electronic products, and communication equipment are expected to increase by two-fold to 33 EUR/h in 2030, but it could grow only by 2.0% a year in the manufacture of rubber, plastic and other non-metallic mineral products to reach 28 EUR/h in 2030. Due to investment related changes in LP, the VA created by WEC companies could increase by 5.9% a year and account to 2.9 billion EUR during 2021–2030. Net profitability and real wages (and salaries) could also increase in future. Seeking to use the potential of companies to manufacture WEC for domestic wind installations and exports, investment supporting programmes are of high importance in the fields of promotion of innovations, development of human capital and adaptation of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the effects of subordinate financial integration on workers in peripheral countries. The objective is to link the financial, productive and social reproduction spheres, taking into account the centre-periphery dynamic in the global process of capital valorisation. In this sense, the main contribution is the proposition of an analytical framework on the subject, based on Marxist and post-Keynesian inspired literature. Considering the asymmetric international relations within the hierarchical monetary system, the dynamics of capital cycles and the external imbalances of peripheral economies, five transmission channels are proposed concerning: (i) the burden of wealth transfer, (ii) the rise in household indebtedness, (iii) the effects of exchange rate volatility on real wages, (iv) the increased pressure for fiscal discipline which contributes to labour and social security reforms, and (v) the regressive specialisation of the productive structure and its impacts on employment. The secondary contribution refers to the comparative analysis of the cases of subordinate financialisation of Brazil and Colombia. The results of this analysis reveal the relevance of the proposed channels in terms of the dynamics of workers' social reproduction in a contemporary context, particularly with regard to wages, employment, household indebtedness and labour and social security rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Goodwin's model with delayed investment function. • Cyclical growth model with time delays and delay dependent coefficients. • Existence of Hopf bifurcations analyzed by choosing time delays as bifurcation parameters. • Chaotic dynamics. In this paper, we reconsider the Goodwin 1967 growth-cycle model, where the antagonistic relationship between wages and profits is assimilated to the prey-predator conflict modeled by Volterra in 1931. Here we propose an extension of Goodwin's basic model by adding two important elements of the business cycle theory: (i) a finite time delay between investment orders and deliveries of finished capital goods, as theorized by Kalecki (1935); (ii) a delayed reaction of real wages to the unemployment levels, as suggested by Chiarella (1990). Both these delays preserve the two-dimensionality of the original model, but it becomes a delayed differential equation system, with two discrete time delays and one-delay dependent parameters. The qualitative study of the system shows that without lags the economic meaningful equilibrium is structurally stable. Nevertheless, as soon the time delays become positive, that equilibrium loses its stability and, according to the combinations of parameters and length of the lags, either periodic or non-periodic (chaotic) fluctuations arise. Numerical simulations supporting the economic analysis show that, in the very long run, a "strange attractor" depicts the dynamic behavior of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade, unemployment in Greece climbed up to 28%, almost quadrupling due to the economic crisis that hit Greece. In the present paper, we examine the determinants of the unemployment dynamics and the impact of the minimum wage on the probability of making a transition into and out of unemployment. We use micro-level data from the Greek Labour Force Survey (LFS) of the period 2004 to 2019 and control for several demographic factors, macro-economic conditions, regional differences, and changes in the statutory minimum wage. The results suggest that individual-level characteristics play an important role in making a transition into or out of unemployment. Changes in the real minimum wage are estimated to have either a statistically insignificant or a very small impact on unemployment entries and exits. Further, the impact of economy's growth rate follows the theoretical predictions as higher growth rates increase unemployment outflows and decrease inflows, while the regional differences are also important. Our findings persist even when we split the sample in three periods (pre-crisis, crisis, recovery). The results have important policy implications. Given that the disemployment effect of the minimum wage seems to be very limited in the Greek labor market, while the socioeconomic characteristics and regional characteristics play an important role, improving the skills of individuals through the educational system and reskilling or up-skilling programs while targeting specific regions may facilitate labor market mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changes in real hourly wages in Colombia along the recovery phase from March 2009 to March 2014. The research starts from the fact that the distribution of wages at trough looks like translations to the left of recovery distribution. This paper sheds light on those procyclical translations through a sequential decomposition on the change of wages in 1) cyclical demand and supply factors; 2) changes in the workers' attributes; 3) changes and spillover effects of the minimum wage, and 4) residual. As the literature suggests, this paper confirms that real hourly wages procyclicality is associated, mainly, with shifts on labor demand and supply factors, and to skills updating --usually linked to the wage distribution secular trend. As a novelty, evidence suggests that there is a positive spillover from monthly minimum wage on hourly wages, explaining 25% of the divergence between distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe the recent (2019) development of migration and integration policies and migration movements in Slovakia and compare the data with previous years. Source data used in this paper come from The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic; Centre of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic; Labour Force Survey (LFS) by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic; Presidium of the Police Corps, Bureau of Border and Alien Police of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic. In 2019 the economic growth in Slovakia continued and the overall macroeconomic picture was relatively good. GDP grew by 2.4 % (4.1 % during the previous year), employment increased by 0.7 % and real wages by 1.9 %. The latter was underpinned by a slight inflation as consumer prices increased year on year by 2.7 %. Unemployment rate decreased from 6.6 % in 2018 to 5.8 % in 2019. The macroeconomic growth in Slovakia is export-driven and seems to be relatively detached from the labour market performance. Slovakia became one of the largest world hubs of the car production with more than million cars assembled in the country annually. The low wage level is also among the key competitive factors of the Slovak economy. At the same time, Slovakia as a member of Eurozone is subject to strict fiscal limitations that are reflected also in the lower level of social benefits, in particular in terms of their purchasing power. This fact contributes to the low attractiveness of Slovakia for migrants who seek to maximize the economic benefit of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds strong support for a Phillips curve that becomes nonlinear when inflation is "low"-which our baseline model defines as less than 3 percent. The nonlinear curve is steep when output is above potential (slack is negative) but flat when output is below potential (slack is positive) so that further increases in economic slack have little effect on inflation. This finding is consistent with evidence of downward nominal wage and price rigidity. When inflation is high, the Phillips curve is linear and relatively steep. These results are robust to placing the threshold between the high and low inflation regimes at 2, 3, or 4 percent inflation or for a threshold based on country-specific medians of inflation. In this nonlinear model, international factors play a large role in explaining headline inflation (albeit less so for core inflation), a role that has been increasing since the global financial crisis. These results provide evidence of channels which could boost inflation in the future, even if they were dormant before the Covid pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, the authors study the long-run determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) in three major European economies over the period 1983–2017, namely Germany, France and Italy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors focus on the capital misallocation effects, scale effects and labor misallocation effects. To this end, the authors study how real interest rate shocks, real exchange rate shocks, real wage shocks and changes in labor regulation affected TFP in major European countries over the last decades. The authors employ a theoretical and an empirical model to investigate the issue. The empirical results are obtained using a VAR model for estimation. Findings: A stripped-down model of labor market in open economy with technology progress allows to identify the relevant variables affecting TFP. On the empirical ground, the authors find a positive relationship between TFP and real interest rate in the long run. Importantly, the authors detect a positive relationship between TFP and real exchange rate. Further, the authors show that the TFP can respond positively to a stricter labor market regulation and to a higher real compensation per employee. The results provide support to the idea that TFP has a positive relation with prices in the long run, while it may be biased along the cycle because of price rigidity. Research limitations/implications: The present model is stylized and may not capture all of the details of reality. The analysis should be extended to a larger number of countries. Technology progress could be proxied using different variables, as the R&D expenditure or the number of patents. Micro data, for specific sectors and industries, can improve the quality of the empirical investigation. Practical implications: Mainly the authors find that TFP has a positive relationship with price changes in the long run, while it may be biased along the cycle because of price stickiness. Capital misallocation and labor misallocation can negatively affect TFP. Thus, the observed divergences in European TFP can be traced back to the misallocation effects attributable to the decrease of real interest rate and real wages, together with the raising labor flexibility. Mainly, the authors detect a positive long-run relationship between TFP and real exchange rate. This outcome strengthens the supply-side view of the relationship between productivity and real exchange rate. Social implications: The authors believe that the present setup can be helpful to reflect critically on the nodes at the core of the productivity slowdown and asymmetries in the eurozone. The aim is to implement renewed policies in order to favor economic growth, convergence and stability in the euro area. Originality/value: This research addresses the issue of asymmetries among European economies by focusing on the role played by real prices in the long run. Traditionally, the dynamics of TFP have been attributed only to technological components, human capital and knowledge. This work shows that the dynamics of prices such as the real interest rate, the real exchange rate and the real wage can also influence the technological process by pushing the production system toward choices that are not always optimal for economic growth. An interesting result of this research concerns the positive relationship between real exchange rates and TFP in the long term, evidence of an important supply-side effect on the technological process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first years of the 21st century, agricultural prices reversed the trajectory that had dominated for decades. The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of such change. The methodology used was based on a classic approach to prices and information of Input-Output Tables from the World Input-Output Database (2012, 2016). The indicators included; rent captured by the average technique, land use, and accumulated price impacts following changes in the cost of imported oil, real wages, and total labor productivity. The results have confirmed that agricultural prices have increased due to increased intensive production and the new institutional context related to higher oil prices, higher wages, and slow technical progress. In conclusion, these elements make up an elevated minimum price level higher than in previous decades, which provides some space for structural change policies in primary developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a combination of a regional computable general equilibrium model(EDIP) and a household micro-simulation model (EUROMOD) to assess the welfare effects of a transport tax reform. The transport tax reform replaces current car fuel and ownership taxes by a road charge differentiated by time and place. This is combined with five realistic tax recycling scenarios that can be ordered by their degree of progressivity. The net revenues are used to reduce taxes on labour. The tax reform leads to modest increases in real wage, disposable income and GDP, while reducing external costs of transport. Using the combination of general equilibrium modelling with micro-simulation we can go into more detail on the distributive impact of the road tax reform. Where other authors have found progressive or mildly regressive impacts of road charging, we find that within each income group there is a wide divergence of positively and negatively affected households. As such, the support or opposition for a road charging policy may depend more on the profile of the car user than on the relative ranking of the user in the income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the evolution of wages in Spain using a stochastic frontier approach to estimate the wage frontiers of workers in Spain as a function of their human capital (education, experience and occupation), year and region. Once the wage frontier has been estimated an analysis is made of determinants (type of contract, economic cycle, gender and region), which may contribute to the workers having difficulties in achieving their maximum attainable potential salary. Given our specific interest in comparing wages before and after the crisis, we monitor the effect on hourly wage of changes in the level of Spanish Gross Domestic Product for the period 2004–2015. For this purpose, a panel data model (Greene in J Econom 126(2):269–303, 2005) is used to estimate the stochastic frontier. The data is obtained from the Spanish Living Conditions Survey. Coinciding with three waves (2004–2007, 2008–2011 and 2012–2015) of the SCLS, our database conveniently encompasses differing economic cycles for estimation. Results show that the difficulty of workers in achieving their potential wage is greater at the end of the post-crisis period than the pre-crisis period. Whilst serving to throw some light on the potential and real wages available to Spanish workers before and after the onset of the economic crisis, the paper also offers a brief glimpse of the effect on individual welfare and evidence of an increasing trend in inequality in the post-crisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the so-called 'Ricardian' trade models, exclusion from trade is impossible because a country can always compensate its technological backwardness with low wages. This result is ensured in these models due to the very restrictive assumption that production requires unassisted labor alone. The present paper shows that the moment conditions of production realistically consider (a) the presence of capital goods and (b) a positive interest rate under international capital mobility, the likelihood of exclusion can no longer be neglected. We develop a model in which imported means of production may impose the presence of a positive lower bound to production costs even if there were no limits to the fall in the rate of domestic real wages. Exclusion is, therefore, the result of this lower bound being higher than the prevailing international price, both for capital and consumption-goods sectors. We finally examine the connection between hypotheses (a) and (b) and the existence of this positive lower bound, both in the model and under alternative assumptions about technology and show that under the hypothesis of technical dependency it is possible that a country is excluded from trade even if there is no capital mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The article clarifies the wage–employment relation in a developing country. Several years ago, many articles in the United States indicated that the relation between increasing wages and increasing unemployment is unclear. These articles from the United States are insufficient to be applicable to all countries, especially developing countries such as Colombia where institutions and the wage–employment relation differ from those in the United States. Design/methodology/approach: A meta-analysis methodology was used as 28 estimates of long-run wage–employment elasticity in Colombia from 1998 to 2016 were analyzed. Findings: This article provides insights into how real wages affect employment. Despite publication biases, results showed that a 1% increase in wages results in a 0.11% decline in employment in the long run. Research limitations/implications: Due to the publication bias, it is not considered how variables such as sectors, estimation strategies (panel data, partial adjustment, cointegration and non-linear least squares, among others), formal/informal urban sectors, government services and transportation, and qualified and unskilled workers affect the true elasticity value. Practical implications: This paper includes implications for public policy because the results are important to minimum wages policy in a developing country. Originality/value: There are no studies regarding the wage–employment relation in a developing country. The empirical results obtained in this article are useful for regulators, policy makers and researchers to understand whether employment is affected by real wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lewisian concept of dualism was empirically relevant to Taiwan given its heavy population pressure on scarce land. Most of the literature, albeit based on little solid evidence, concluded that Taiwan reached the Lewisian turning point around the end of the 1960s. Others argued that the LTP was after 1979. This paper first follows three criteria proposed by Minami (1973). We observe the active reallocation of employment after the mid-1960s and the dramatic increases in real wages of the agricultural and unskilled workers at the end of the 1960s. Furthermore, we introduce a new empirical methodology on the agricultural production function by adding a year dummy variable to identify a potential LTP, which leads to the agricultural marginal product of labor being zero before the LTP and becoming positive thereafter. Our findings support the notion that the LTP in Taiwan occurred around the period 1969–1973, rather than after 1979. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests the relationships between interregional labour migration and regional real wages based on a multi-region economic geography model, which describes bilateral migration flows. In particular, this paper highlights real wage disparities in the migration analysis. Our empirical methodology contains two steps. First, we structurally estimate a gravity model using manufacturing workers' migration flows across the 47 Japanese prefectures. Second, using the estimates of the structural parameters, we examine the impact of the real wage on the net migration rate. We find that migrants respond to real wage disparities, rather than to nominal wage disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses social structures of accumulation theory in combination with Ernesto Laclau's discourse theory in order to analyze the institutional mechanisms that sustained the long economic expansion of the Spanish economy between 1995 and 2008. Productive deficiencies endogenously gave way to several trends that, despite displaying a highly contradictory character when considered in isolation, managed to coalesce into a relatively coherent whole for more than a decade, namely, a massive housing bubble, an explosion of private debt in the face of real wage stagnation, and family economies being submitted to increasing strains. Moreover, their joint occurrence prevented their inherently conflictive nature from acquiring a political expression liable to undo the institutional structure itself, so that a social order was successfully reproduced throughout the whole expansion phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that rising food staple prices can pose a significant barrier to the growth of labour‐intensive manufacturing by raising real wage rates. This is important because an expanding manufacturing sector has both comparative static and dynamic effects on labour productivity growth. The experience of Indonesia is used to illustrate these ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a description of the labour market in Valledupar for the period 2007-2017. We find that after the fall of coal prices, the labour market has presented a significant deterioration, reflected in the increase of unemployment rate, especially for the most educated, women and youth. The econometric results confirm that changes in coal prices have a positive and significant effect in labour participation and real wages. Moreover, we find that the return of higher education in Valledupar is lower, compared to the rest of cities in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper measures real wages in St Petersburg, Moscow, and Kursk over 1853-1937. Workers in construction and large scale industry are studied. For the imperial period and the NEP, new series of prices are collected from archival and printed sources, and these radically revise previous measures of inflation. Russian living standards grew little between 1853 and 1913, but doubled between 1913 and 1928 due to the exchange rate, price, and employment policies followed by the regime. Real wages dropped to their pre-War level between 1928 and 1937, as the social surplus was mobilized for the industrialization drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, I investigate the "little divergence" of late medieval and early modern Europe, focusing on the long run response of real wages to demographic changes. Through a quantitative analysis of the 14th–18th centuries series of real wages and population shocks in fourteen European cities, I find that in four north-western cities (Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, and Oxford) the urban real wages were detached from population before the Industrial Revolution, while, in the central and southern Europe wages had a moderate or negative response to population changes. In addition, I show that this different response dates back to the 16th century. I claim, that these two results support three possibly non alternative interpretations of the "little divergence", either based on changes of fertility regimes, rural and urban labor organizations, or on the onset, in early modern north-western Europe, of non strictly Malthusian growth mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretically, increases in food prices could benefit the poor by increasing the demand for unskilled labour, and hence their wages. This paper tests this hypothesis in urban Ethiopia. We exploit a unique panel of monthly price and wage data from 111 urban markets to first construct welfare-relevant measures of real wages, before employing various panel estimators to formally test wage-food price integration. We find moderate rates of long-run adjustment to increases in food prices, but that adjustment is very slow. This implies highly adverse short-run welfare impacts of higher food prices on the urban poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among employment, real wage, and output growth in Canada. Design/methodology/approach – Using quarterly data from 1994q2 to 2012q3, this paper employs a vector autoregressive framework while allowing for the derivation of output from its historical maximum over the sample period to affect future output, employment, and real wage growth dynamics. Findings – There are three main findings: output growth is significant in predicting employment growth and vice versa; real wage growth neither Granger causes employment growth nor output growth, but employment growth Granger causes real wage growth; and non-linear dynamics, captured by the current depth regression (CDR) effect term, through the sign as well as the magnitude of output changes, are important in characterizing the evolution of the relationship among output, employment, and real wage growth. Practical implications – The findings of this research have significant implications for policy makers. Output and employment growth are important in forecasting each other in Canada. In contrast to the mainstream theory, real growth is insignificant in explaining the future dynamics of employment in Canada. Policies need to be formulated to encourage the growth of employment to ensure sustain output growth. Originality/value – This study examines empirically the real output, real wage, and employment link in Canada. This study uses the most recently revised GDP data arising from the 2012 Historical Revision of the Canadian System of National Accounts. The econometric methodology involves the standard vector autoregression (VAR) model to which the authors introduce non-linear dynamics through a term that controls for the deviation of output from its preceding historical maximum: the CDR effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The facts indicate that real wage rates tend to be homogenous within the First World, but they exhibit significant differences between the First World and the Third World. The standard neoclassical trade model predicts real wage equalization across countries. This prediction is consistent with the first fact, but is refuted by the second. On the other hand, the standard Ricardian model does not predict real wage equalization, so in principle these facts do not refute the model; however, it is unable to explain the wages-profits distribution. This paper proposes a generalized Ricardian trade model, which solves this theoretical difficulty. The generalized model is able to explain both facts about real wages and international trade. On epistemological grounds, the Ricardian theory proves to be superior to the neoclassical theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the continuing importance, but declining dynamism, of the manufacturing sector, this paper investigates trends in productivity at firm levels. It finds that labour productivity has been either stagnant or falling in labour-intensive manufacturing. Thepaper uses firm level cross-sectional and time series data and employs gmm techniques to estimate determinants of productivity. It finds that real wage is the most important variable that influences firm level productivity, followed by capital intensity. Contrary to the common perception, foreign ownership and export orientation are not found to have statistically significant influence on firm level productivity. This finding is consistent for firms of all sizes—large, medium, small and micro. This implies that Indonesia can use wages policy, as Singapore did during the late 1970s to mid-1980s, to upgrade its manufacturing to higher value-added activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The common notion that extreme poverty is the "natural" condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to essential goods. • Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism. • The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. • In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, wages and/or height have still not recovered. • Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began only around the 20th century. These gains coincide with the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements. This paper assesses claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty (defined as the inability to access essential goods), and that global human welfare only began to improve with the rise of capitalism. These claims rely on national accounts and PPP exchange rates that do not adequately capture changes in people's access to essential goods. We assess this narrative against extant data on three empirical indicators of human welfare: real wages (with respect to a subsistence basket), human height, and mortality. We ask whether these indicators improved or deteriorated with the rise of capitalism in five world regions - Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China – using the chronology put forward by world-systems theorists. The evidence we review here points to three conclusions. (1) It is unlikely that 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty prior to the 19th century. Historically, unskilled urban labourers in all regions tended to have wages high enough to support a family of four above the poverty line by working 250 days or 12 months a year, except during periods of severe social dislocation, such as famines, wars, and institutionalized dispossession – particularly under colonialism. (2) The rise of capitalism caused a dramatic deterioration of human welfare. In all regions studied here, incorporation into the capitalist world-system was associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, key welfare metrics have still not recovered. (3) Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began several centuries after the rise of capitalism. In the core regions of Northwest Europe, progress began in the 1880s, while in the periphery and semi-periphery it began in the mid-20th century, a period characterized by the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements that redistributed incomes and established public provisioning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying aggregate demand/aggregate supply analysis and based on a quarterly sample during 2000.Q4-2015.Q4, this paper finds that Croatia's aggregate output is positively associated with government debt as percent of GDP during 2000.Q4-2008.Q4, real appreciation of the kuna, the real stock price, German real GDP, the real oil price and real wages and negatively influenced by government debt as percent of GDP during 2009.Q1-2015.Q4, the real lending rate and the expected inflation rate. The dynamic relationships between real GDP and government debt as percent of GDP suggest that fiscal discipline needs to be exercised in pursuing expansionary macroeconomic policy in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distributive consequences of monetary policy have been researched only recently and almost entirely in advanced economies. This paper sheds light on the effect of conventional monetary policy shocks on the wage distribution in South Africa, where inequality – mostly driven by the segmented labour market – remains a large issue. Impulse response functions estimated from local projections show that the wage distribution significantly worsens in response to monetary shocks. Wages in the top half of the distribution, that benefit from unanticipated expansions, are less responsive to surprise contractions, remaining protected by skill-biased technology and strong labour unions. • As most of emerging markets, South Africa features several dimensions of worker heterogeneity. • Wage inequality significantly worsens in response to unanticipated monetary expansions. • The redistributive effects are transmitted through the deeply segmented labour market. • A surprise hike boosts skilled-job wage inflation and curbs down real wages at the bottom of the distribution. • A countercyclical use of monetary policy effectively contributes to lower wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines dynamic patterns of land use, capital investments and wages in agriculture using farm panel data from Indonesia. The empirical analysis shows that with an increase in real wages that prevailed in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in rural areas, relatively larger farmers increased the size of operational farm land by renting in land as well as used more hired-in machines through machine rental and/or service providers, which induces the substitution of labor by machines. Machines and land are complementary and, consistently, the inverse farm size-productivity relationship tends to be reversed among relatively large holders. The results support growing (diminishing) advantage of large (small) farms in the presence of rapidly rising real wages and have food security policy implications to many Asian countries where real wages are rapidly rising and small farms are predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the agricultural sector during the ISI period and the debate about the agricultural wage and the living conditions of the farm workers have a long historiography. But until today there is little information about workers' income in the long run. In this paper we want to reflect about the wage level reached during this period and for that we will present a new wage series for 1934-1973. We seek to analyze their behavior considering the sector labour productivity, its relation with industrial wages and the institutional frame in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Studies of the cyclical behavior of real wages have identified monetary shocks and examined the response of real wages and output or employment. A finding that real wages are procyclical in response to a positive monetary policy shock is taken as evidence that prices are stickier than wages. The purpose of this paper is to show that factors other than wage and price stickiness affect the response of real wages to a monetary policy shock. Design/methodology/approach – The authors simulate two prominent dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models under a variety of parameter values and examine the cyclicality of the real wage. Findings – The authors offer robust evidence that the real wage response to monetary policy is affected in important ways by properties of the economy other than stickiness of wages and prices, such as the importance of intermediate goods in the production process and the size of key elasticities. Consequently, the authors cannot appropriately infer the relative stickiness of wages and prices from examining only the response of real wages to a monetary policy shock. Originality/value – The authors show in this study that examining the response of real wages is not enough to sort out the relative stickiness of prices and wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we set up a model of economic growth which deals with Keynesian unemployment, from non-Walrasian/Keynesian perspectives, investigate the possibility of persistent “growth cycles” generated and analyze the effects of flexibility of (real) wages on the long-run economic stability. Consequently, we reach the conclusion that flexibility of wages has an adverse effect on the macroeconomic stability and that reductions of wages have negative impacts on the attainment of “full-employment.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High prices that are not offset by equally high incomes are often seen as an affordability problem. To get by, poorer workers in these areas might have to work longer hours. Alternatively, lower real wages might indicate a more desirable place to live and induce high‐income people to trade off cash for leisure time. Both interpretations suggest a link between real wages and an individual's labour supply choice. Using panel data, I observe how working hours change, when workers move place. I find that working hours increase by 0.42% for a 10% decrease of local real wage. The effect is stronger for low‐skilled workers at the bottom of the wage distribution, indicating an affordability mechanism that might further exacerbate inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of the Spanish Flu on real wages were negative, large but overall short-lived. • The negative effects on real wages were exacerbated in more urbanized regions. • The negative effects on real wages were stronger in occupations producing non-essential goods like shoemakers. • We fail to find negative effects of the Spanish Flu on returns to capital (dividends and real estate prices). Which are the effects of pandemics on the returns to factors of production? Are these effects persistent over time? These questions have received renewed interest after the out-burst of deaths caused by Covid-19. The Spanish Flu is the closest pandemic to Covid-19. In this paper, we analyze the impact of the Spanish Flu on the returns to labor and capital in Spain. Spain is an ideal country to perform this exercise. First, the "excess death rate" was one of the largest in Western Europe and it varied substantially across regions. Second, Spain was transitioning towards industrialization, with regions in different stages of development. Third, Spain was developed enough to have reliable data. We identify the effect of the Spanish Flu by exploiting within-country variation in "excess death rate". Our main result is that the effect of the Spanish Flu on daily real wages was large, negative, and broadly short-lived. The effects are heterogeneous across occupations and regions. The negative effects are exacerbated in (i) occupations producing non-essential goods like shoemakers and (ii) more urbanized provinces. Quantitatively, relative to pre-1918, the decline for the average region ranges from null to around 30 percent. In addition, we fail to find significant negative effects of the flu on returns to capital. Whereas the results for dividends are imprecisely estimated (we cannot reject a null effect), the effect on real estate prices (houses and land), driven by the post-1918 recovery, is positive. Experts on inequality have argued that pandemics have equalizing effects especially in a Malthusian setting, due to real wage increases. Our findings suggest that, at least, for a developing economy like Spain in the early 20th century, this result does not apply. Indeed, we document that the flu pandemic was conducive to a (short-run) reduction in real wages. In addition, we interpret our heterogeneous results as suggestive evidence that pandemics represent a demand shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct a theoretical model considering that wage distortion is exogenous and endogenous, respectively, to explore the effect of wage distortion on green technological progress. Furthermore, using the panel data of China's industrial sector, we investigate the direct influence and mediating effect of wage distortion on green technological progress. We find that the green technological progress of China's industrial sector continued to rise from 2002 to 2012. However, the green technological progress of China's manufacturing sub-sectors is relatively slow. The wage distortion phenomenon that the labor's real wage level is less than the labor's marginal product level is widespread, especially in manufacturing sub-sectors. Moreover, green technological progress has a path-dependence characteristic. Wage distortion plays an important role in the changes in the direction of green technological progress. Green technological progress is more likely to appear in the sub-sectors which experience low wage distortion degree, while the sub-sectors with severe wage distortion experience a lower green technological progress rate. Wage distortion increases industrial profit margins by deliberately suppressing the rise of wages. In addition, increased industrial profit margins reduce the incentives of the green technological innovation of equipment suppliers and inhibit the improvement in green production technology. Therefore, alleviating wage distortion can benefit the green development of industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]