A Decomposition of the Decline in Japanese Nominal Wages in the 1990s and 2000s
1
조회
0
다운로드
1
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
In the 1990s and the 2000s, the average nominal wage in Japan declined continuously. This is a sharp contrast to wage trends in other developed countries in the same period. This study seeks to provide new quantitative evidence on the possible factors contributing to the nominal wage decline in Japan’s so-called “two lost decades” employing the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method using data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure for 1993-2008. We find that half of the decline of the average wage in the total economy is due to the growing employment share of low-wage industries. Further, we decompose changes in average wages at the industry level for three subperiods representing different phases of the business cycle in Japan. Controlling for worker characteristics, we find the wages of workers in the manufacturing, wholesale, and medical, health care, and welfare industries declined between 1998 and 2003. Further, our results show that 1997 was the turning point in terms of changes in the wage structure. In addition, we find that wages for workers with the same characteristics continued to decline in the 2000s, albeit at a slower pace, and the main factor responsible for the wage decline was changes in the composition of the workforce in the wholesale, retail, and medical, health care, and welfare industries.
Abstract
In the 1990s and the 2000s, the average nominal wage in Japan declined continuously. This is a sharp contrast to wage trends in other developed countries in the same period. This study seeks to provide new quantitative evidence on the possible factors contributing to the nominal wage decline in Japan’s so-called “two lost decades” employing the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method using data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure for 1993-2008. We find that half of the decline of the average wage in the total economy is due to the growing employment share of low-wage industries. Further, we decompose changes in average wages at the industry level for three subperiods representing different phases of the business cycle in Japan. Controlling for worker characteristics, we find the wages of workers in the manufacturing, wholesale, and medical, health care, and welfare industries declined between 1998 and 2003. Further, our results show that 1997 was the turning point in terms of changes in the wage structure. In addition, we find that wages for workers with the same characteristics continued to decline in the 2000s, albeit at a slower pace, and the main factor responsible for the wage decline was changes in the composition of the workforce in the wholesale, retail, and medical, health care, and welfare industries.
참고문헌 (25)
- Beaudry, Paul, "The Effect of Implicit Contracts on the Movement of Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Micro Data", Journal of Political Economy, 99(4), pp.665~688 (1991)
- Blinder, Alan., "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates", Journal of Human Resources, 8(4), pp.436~455 (1973)
- Cahuc, Pierre, "Labor Economics" (2014), MIT Press
- Christofides, Louis N., "Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity in a Friction Model", Economics Letters, 87(2), pp.235~241 (2005)
- Dickens, William T., "How Wages Change: Micro Evidence from the International Wage Flexibility Project", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(2), pp.195~214 (2007)
- "The Japanese Economy and Economic Policy in the Bubble Period/Deflationary Period (Historiography)" (2011)[URL]
- Elsby, Michael W.L., "Evaluating the Economic Significance of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity", Journal of Monetary Economics, 56(2), pp.154~169 (2009)
- Hagedorn, Marcus, "Job Selection and Wages over the Business Cycle", American Economic Review, 103(2), pp.771~803 (2013)
- Hamaaki, Junya, "Changes in the Japanese Employment System in the Two Lost Decades", Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 65(4), pp.810~846 (2012)
- Ikenaga, Toshie, "Labor Market Polarization and Demand for Nonroutine Unskilled Employment in Japan", Japanese Journal of Labour Studies, (608), pp.71~87 (2011)
- Productivity Dynamics and Japan’s Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Financial Statements Statistics of Corporations by Industry, "Inui, Tomohiko", RIETI, ~, pp.Discussion Paper, No. 11-J-042 (2011)
- "Abe asks business leaders to raise wages to help beat chronic deflation", Japan Times February 13, ~ (2013)
- Kambayashi, Ryo, "Nominal Wage Rigidity in Japan (1993-2006): Quasipanel Approach", Economic Review, 62(4), pp.301~317 (2011)
- Kimura, Takeshi, "Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in Japan", Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 15(1), pp.50~67 (2001)
- Kuroda, Sachiko, "Wage Changes During the Period of Deflation", Tokyo University Press
- Kuroda, Sachiko, "Is Downward Wage Flexibility the Primary Factor of Japan’s Prolonged Deflation?”", Asian Economic Policy Review, 9(1), pp.143~158 (2014)
- White Paper on International Economy and Trade, "Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry", Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, ~ (2012)
- "The prime minister asks business leaders to raise wages", Nikkei Shimbun February, 12, 2013, ~ (2013)
- Oreopoulous, Philip, "The Short- and Long-Term Career Effects of Graduating in a Recession", American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4(1), pp.1~29 (2012)
- Oaxaca, Ronald, "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets", International Economic Review, 14(3), pp.693~709 (1973)
- "Spring offensive", SankeiBiz March, 13, 2014, ~ (2014)
- Why Are Japanese Wages so Sluggish?, "Sommer, Martin", IMF, ~, pp.IMF Working Paper, WP (2009), 09[DOI]
- Charlie G. Turner, "Earnings Differences in the South Korean Labor Market: Decomposing the Gender Wage Gap, 1988-98", Seoul Journal of Economics, 19(3), pp.297~312 (2006), 경제연구소
- Weichselbaumer, Doris, "A Meta-Analysis of the International Gender Wage Gap", Journal of Economic Surveys, 19(3), pp.479~511 (2005)
- Yoshikawa, Hiroshi, "Deflation" (2013), Nihon Keizai Shimbun Press