Wage growth dispersion across the euro area countries: some stylised facts

Beatrice Pierluigi, Nick Vidalis, Malin Andersson and Arne Gieseck

No 90, Occasional Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This study presents some stylised facts on wage growth differentials across the euro area countries in the years before and in the first eight years after the introduction of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999. The study shows that wage growth dispersion, i.e. the degree of difference in wage growth at a given point in time, has been on a clear downward trend since the early 1980s. However, wage growth dispersion across the euro area countries still appears to be higher than the degree of wage growth dispersion within West Germany, the United States, Italy and Spain. Differences in wage growth rates between individual euro area countries and the euro area in the years before and in the first eight years after the introduction of EMU appear to be positively related to the respective differences between their Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) infl ation and average HICP inflation in the euro area. Conversely, relative wage growth differentials across euro area countries have been somewhat unrelated to relative productivity growth differentials. Some countries combine positive wage growth differentials and negative productivity growth differentials vis- JEL Classification: E24, E31, C10

Keywords: cross-country wage dispersion; wage and productivity levels across countries and sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-07
Note: 591179
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbops:200890

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