August 2021 (Revised March 2022)

What Can We Learn from Asynchronous Wage Changes?

Cynthia L. Doniger

Abstract:

I document eight novel facts about wage changes and provide a theoretical framework to rationalize them. I then illustrate how this new treatment of data and theoretical framework speak to important secular and cyclical features of the macroeconomy. The evidence put forth in this paper, suggests that a theory of wage setting in which wages respond to idiosyncratic competition is an important complement to the more conventional macroeconomic view in which wage rigidity is induced by deliberately divorcing the timing of wage changes from innovations in firms' and workers' opportunities.
Accessible materials (.zip)

Keywords: Labor Contracts, Wage Changes, Job Ladder

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2021.055r1

PDF: Full Paper

Original Paper: PDF | Accessible materials (.zip)

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Last Update: August 12, 2021