Wage Rigidity and Disinflation in Emerging Countries

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Messina, Julian; Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna
• 署名单位: The World Bank; Universitat de Girona; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.6.1.102
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 102-133
• 关键词: real; flexibility; inflation

摘要

This paper examines the consequences of rapid disinflation for downward wage rigidities in two emerging countries, Brazil and Uruguay. Although wage rigidities are altered by disinflation, in neither of the two countries does price stability eliminate frictions in wage-setting mechanisms. In a context of individual wage negotiations and weak unions, disinflation in Uruguay puts an end to its history of indexation, but strong resistance to nominal wage cuts emerges. In strongly unionized Brazil, wage indexation is highly persistent, but the introduction of inflation targeting by the Central Bank in 1999 moves the focal point of wage negotiations to expected inflation.