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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Real earnings and business cycles: new evidence
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Robert A Hart
  • James R Malley
  • Ulrich Woitek
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Empirical Economics
Publisher Springer
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0377-7332
Volume 37
Number 1
Page Range 51 - 71
Date 2008
Abstract Text In the time domain, the observed cyclical behavior of the real wage hides a range of economic influences that give rise to cycles of differing lengths and strengths. This may serve to produce a distorted picture of wage cyclicality. Here, we employ frequency domain methods that allow us to assess the relative contribution of cyclical frequency bands on real wage earnings. Earnings are decomposed into standard and overtime components. We also distinguish between consumption and production wages. Frequency domain analysis is carried out in relation to wages alone and to wages in relation to output and employment cycles. Our univariate analysis suggests that, in general, the dominant cycle followed by output, employment, real consumer and producer wages and their components is 5-7 years. Consistent with previous findings reported in the macro-level literature, our bi-variate results show that the various measures of the wage are generally not linked to the employment cycle. However, and in sharp contrast with previous macro-level studies we find strong procyclical links between the consumer wage and its overtime components and the output cycle, especially at the 5-7 years frequency.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1007/s00181-008-0222-1
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Additional Information The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com