Is Hypoinflation Good Policy?

Wayne Simpson, Norman E. Cameron and Derek Hum

Canadian Public Policy, 1998, vol. 24, issue 3, 291-308

Abstract: One argument against a policy to achieve absolute price stability is that workers resist pay cuts. We examine several Canadian microdata sources and corroborate earlier evidence of pay-cut resistance, particularly recently as inflation has approached zero. We then use data on industrial sectors to estimate that pay-cut resistance reduced employment growth by from 0.6 to 1.5 percent per annum from 1993 to 1995. We also estimate a model of wage settlements, treating pay freezes and pay cuts as censored data, which implies that pay-cut resistance may have increased the annual unemployment rate by as much as 2 percent during the same period. In view of these results, the case for very low inflation targets should be reexamined.

Date: 1998
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