Wage Rigidity: Micro and Macro Evidence on Labor Market Adjustment in the Modern Sector
研究了科特迪瓦现代部门在1979-84年经济衰退期间，加总数据看似显示工资刚性导致就业下降，但微观数据表明实际工资下降，而就业仍减少，揭示了加总数据的误导性。
Aggregate data on wages and employment may provide misleading indicators of labor market conditions. They may suggest inappropriate wage policies in the face of the rising unemployment experienced in many developing countries during the 1980s. Such increases in unemployment are often attributed to wage rigidities. A cursory review of aggregate data for the modern sector in Cote d'lvoire would support this view, suggesting that employment declined during the 1979-84 recession due to an increase in real wages. Examination of disaggregated data from two labor force censuses of the modern sector, however, shows that real wages declined for specified classes of labor. The work force was characterized by greater education, training, and experience; workers with a given level of attributes received a lower real wage by the end of the recession than before it. Despite this drop in real wages, employment in the modern sector declined. Recessions and persistent unemployment in many developed and developing countries over the last decade have increased interest in the operation of labor markets. Much of the debate on the causes of unemployment has focused on