Employment Fluctuations and Dynamics of the Aggregate Average Wage in Poland 1996-2003

Michal Myck (), Leszek Morawski () and Jerzy Mycielski ()
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Michal Myck: DIW Berlin and IZA Bonn
Leszek Morawski: Warsaw University

No 2456, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: The aggregate average wage is often used as an indicator of economic performance and welfare, and as such often serves as a benchmark for changes in the generosity of public transfers and for wage negotiations. Yet if economies experience a high degree of (nonrandom) fluctuation in employment the composition of the employed population will have a considerable effect on the computed average. In this paper we demonstrate the extent of this problem using data for Poland for the period 1996-2003. During these years employment in Poland fell from 51.2% to 44.2% and most of it occurred between the end of 1998 and the end of 2002. We show that about a quarter of the growth in the average wage during this period could be attributed purely to changes in employment.

Keywords: wage distribution; aggregation; employment dynamics; transition economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-mac and nep-tra
Date: 2006-11
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Related works:
Working Paper: Employment Fluctuations and Dynamics of the Aggregate Average Wage in Poland 1996 - 2003 (2006)
Journal Article: Employment fluctuations and dynamics of the aggregate average wage in Poland, 1996-2003 (2007)
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