Employment Responses of Skilled and Unskilled Workers at Mexican Maquiladoras: The Effects of External Factors

Consider a multi-sector economy subject to an exogenous demand shock that alters the equilibrium structure of relative prices. How should the structure of sectorial wages adjust in response to such a shock? This question is addressed in the context of a multi-sector model of an open-economy producing internationally tradable and non-tradable goods. In order to focus on intersectorial wage structure without abandoning the competitive neoclassical paradigm we assume that workers differ from each other in their absolute and relative skills. Such differences result in equilibrium wage differentials which are affected by the exogenous real shock. Cost of negotiations result in labor market contracts which set nominal wages in advance of the realization of the stochastic shocks. The analysis provides formulae for the optimal sectorial wage-indexation rules. The optimal rules alter both the absolute and the relative structure of sectorial nominal wages. We examine the dependence of the optimal wage adjustments on the degree of heterogeneity of the skill distribution and on the degree to which the economy is open to international trade; we also study the effects of various shocks and policies on the real exchange rate, real wages and the distribution of income.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/nber_w1801.pdf?abstractid=338841&mirid=1

Sectorial Wages and the Real Exchange Rate

Currency Exchange Rate as a Tool of Strategic Analysis (Evidence from Russian Industry)

This paper analyses the relationship between the real exchange rate, real wages and aggregate output. We present a model in which changes in aggregate output and in the real exchange rate precede changes in real wages, and where output is expected to positively affect real wages while changes in the real exchange rate are expected to negatively affect real wages. The empirical analysis is carried out for the case of Brazil, a country which has recently undergone an exchange-rate-based stabilization plan and where the impact of exchange rate anchoring on the real sector seems to be relevant. Using monthly data for the period 1985 to 2001, Granger causality tests and Johansen's Maximum likelihood estimates confirmed the assumptions of our model by showing that real wages are positively affected by output and negatively impacted by the real exchange rate in the long run. [F31, F41, J39]

Francisco Galrão Caneiro

Papers

Devalution, Output and Wages