Business cycle models, aggregation, and real wage cyclicality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bowlus, A; Liu, HM; Robinson, C
• 署名单位: Western University (University of Western Ontario); National University of Singapore
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/338219
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 308-335
• 关键词: employment; Heterogeneity; INEQUALITY; selection; IMPACT; skill; BIAS

摘要

A substantial literature has developed to estimate the true cyclicality of real wages, that is, composition bias free. Two major issues are addressed in this article: aggregation of heterogeneous workers and potential bias in the measurement of the labor input. A general analysis of the biases is presented, and alternative approaches in the literature are nested in a single framework. Estimates based on an efficiency units concept that avoids the usual aggregation problems are presented. Composition bias underestimates the usual parameters of interest unless both the price and the quantity of the labor input are adjusted appropriately.