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Rigid labour compensation and flexible employment? Firm-level evidence with regard to productivity for Belgium. NBB Working Papers. No. 159, 11 March 2009

Fuss, Catherine and Wintr, Ladislav. (2009) Rigid labour compensation and flexible employment? Firm-level evidence with regard to productivity for Belgium. NBB Working Papers. No. 159, 11 March 2009. [Working Paper]

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    Abstract

    Using firm-level data for Belgium over the period 1997-2005, we evaluate the elasticity of firms' labour and real average labour compensation to microeconomic total factor productivity (TFP). Our results may be summarised as follows. First, we find that the elasticity of average labour compensation to firm-level TFP is very low contrary to that of labour, consistent with real wage rigidity. Second, while the elasticity of average labour compensation to idiosyncratic firm-level TFP is close to zero, the elasticity with respect to aggregate sector-level TFP is high. We argue that average labour compensation adjustment mainly occur at the sector level through sectoral collective bargaining, which leaves little room for firm-level adjustment to firm-specific shocks. Third, we report evidence of a positive relationship between hours and idiosyncratic TFP, as well as aggregate TFP within the year.

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    Item Type: Working Paper
    Subjects for non-EU documents: Countries > Belgium
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > employment/labour market > labour/labor
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > National Bank of Belgium (Brussels) > Working Papers
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 20 May 2009
    Page Range: p. 45
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 18:11
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10972

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